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During the 1950s, the rhetoric of "law and order" gained steam when Southern governors tried to generate and mobilize white opposition to the Civil Rights movement. After Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights activists attempted to force Southern states to desegregate public facilities. Southern governors and law enforcement officials argued that these tactics were criminal and that the Civil Rights movement was a breakdown of law and order. Southern conservatives called any civil rights legislation a reward for lawbreakers. These same conservatives linked opposition to civil rights legislation to calls for law and order, even going so far as to make absurd claims such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of civil disobedience being the leading cause of crime. Unfortunately, at the same time, the FBI was reporting dramatic increases in the national crime rate. In the 1960s, crime rates rose for about 10 years; reported street crime quadrupled, and homicide rates doubled. However, the reason for crime can be explained by the "baby boom generation." The surge of young men was occurring precisely at the same time that the unemployment rates for black men was. The reasons, of course were not discussed in the media. Instead, crime reports were sensationalized and offered as evidence for the breakdown of lawfulness in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement. Riots after the assassination of MLK Jr. added fuel to conservative arguments. Barry Goldwater, in his presidential campaign of 1964, exploited the riots and fears of black crime, laying the foundation for the "get tough on crime movement." These riots were largely due to police brutality. "If blacks conduct themselves in an orderly way, they will not have to worry about police brutality," argued West Virginia senator Robert Byrd. (Alexander 42). Rising crime rates were used as an excuse for a crackdown on impoverished black communities.
