What Was Life Like For Black Americans in The 80s?

What was it like being black in the 1980s? Black life in the 1980s was at times beautiful, at times scary, and always complicated. The rise of black celebrity and culture did not translate into a rise in the black condition. What changed? What stayed the same? In this episode of Lexual Does The 80s, we’ll be diving into Black Life in Reagan’s America.

[Jesse Jackson, Yusuf Hawkins, Oprah, Black middle class, buppies, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Ronald Reagan, Eddie Murphy, Forsyth County, Subway Vigilante, Bernhard Goetz, Chattanooga, Willie Turks, Miami Riots, Arthur McDuffie, Haitian Boat People, Harold Washington, Marion Barry, Tom Bradley, Coleman Young, MOVE Bombing, Wilson Goode, Nation of Islam, Fruit of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, Roy Innis, Al Sharpton, Max Robinson, AIDS, Len Bias, Crack cocaine, Operation Hammer, Operation Clean Sweep, Tina Turner, Kurt L. Shmoke, KKK, Bill Cosby, Why did people oppose the Martin Luther King holiday]

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0:00- MLK Day Intro
*The Beautiful Ones*
3:48- Black Athletes + Musicians
7:22- Black Actors
8:08- Changes in TV
10:53- Buppies and The Black Upper Class

New Decade, Same Problems
14:30- Forsyth County, Georgia (1987)
18:44- Michael Donald Lawsuit Inspires Further Litigation
21:55- Chattanooga Tennessee Shootings (1980)
23:20- Arthur McDuffie + The Miami Riots
25:11- Joseph Gerard Christoper Serial Killer
25:47- Willie Turks, Michael Griffith, + Yusuf Hawkins
29:21- Bernhard Geotz the "Subway Vigilante"

*The Black Agenda*
33:01- Reagan's Black Agenda
34:52- 1985 Surveys of Black Americans
37:28- Haitians and Black Immigration
40:41- Jesse Jackson, Douglass Wilder, + Electoral Politics
42:56- Tom Bradley+ The Plight of Black Mayors
44:50- Harold Washington + Chicago
47:52- Andrew Young + Atlanta
49:21- Coleman Young + Detroit
51:15- Marion Barry + DC
53:23- Wilson Goode, Philly, + MOVE Bombing
55:11- Benjamin Chavis, Warren County, + Environmental Racism
56:49- Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan, + Fruit of Islam
58:59- Buppie Organizing
1:00:44- Kurt L Schmoke, Baltimore, + Drugs
1:01:10- Unemployment + Poverty
1:02:54- The HIV/AIDS Crisis

*The Mean Streets*
1:06:36- Len Bias
1:08:37- The Criminalization of Crack Abuse
1:13:27- Crime
1:16:54- The Broken Windows Theory
1:17:41- Initiative 9 + Operation Clean Sweep in DC
1:19:30- Operation Hammer + The LAPD
1:20:58- Richard Winrow + Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
1:22:30 - Lingering Disagreements About Eradicating Crime

*New Expressions*
1:25:15- Black Women in Literature
1:26:13- Spike Lee + Do The Right Thing
1:27:00- Public Enemy + NWA

1:28:45- Conclusion
1:32:33 - Credits + Patreon Support