Abstract
Mass incarceration disproportionately affects racial minorities—especially young, Black men without a high school degree—but there is some debate as to whether this was an intended or unintended consequence of sentencing policies that led to mass imprisonment. By tracing the development of the Rockefeller Drug laws of 1973, the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, this chapter reveals how the racial realignment of the American party system and violent crime in urban communities interacted to spawn a “prison nation.” While documenting the intentional actions of White political elites, it also highlights the consequential role of Black experiences, opinion, and politics at critical moments in the development of sentencing policy in the United States.