Pimp: The Story of My Life

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes descriptions of racism, physical abuse, sexual content, and sexual violence.

After the abolition of enslavement in the United States in 1865, Black people remained a target of both systemic and social oppression, and 60 years later, Black people were still seen and treated as lesser. They experienced racist attacks and were often targeted by police and white citizens. Although the northern United States, unlike the southern states, did not have Jim Crow laws that required Black people to be segregated from white people, the dominant policies and social attitudes nonetheless remained very much in favor of white people. Black people were still segregated from white people in prisons and often became targets of abuse while incarcerated. 

The Ku Klux Klan also grew rapidly during the 1920s, signaling a rise of anti-Black racism and violence around the country. Black people also experienced greater economic devastation than their white counterparts during the Great Depression in the1930s, as they were often the first to be fired or laid off, and many charities refused outright to help Black people during this time period. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected, much of the support for his campaign came from the Black community, as Black people needed and wanted a better standard of living.