‘When Crack Was King’ Dives into the People, and the Myths, of the Crack Epidemic

The crack epidemic of the 1980s and 90s had a devastating and lasting effect on black communities and the criminal justice system. But Donovan X Ramsey writes that those who survived the era will hardly ever talk about it and when they do it’s, “like a trauma long accepted in hushed voices, with thousand yard stares.” In his book, When Crack Was King, Ramsey is on a quest to understand the crack era through portraits of a user, a kid of an addict, a dealer, and a politician pushing for treating the epidemic as a public health problem. We talk to Ramsey about his book, the myths that permeate our flawed understanding of the crack era and the resilience of communities that lived through it.

Guests:

Donovan X. Ramsey, author, "When Crack Was King" - Ramsey is a former senior reporter with the LA Times. He is currently a senior editor with the Marshall Project.

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