Order or justice? Republicans and the ‘urban crisis’, 1966–67

Abstract

This chapter explores the Republican response to the ‘urban crisis’ of the mid-to-late 1960s. Specifically, it shows how conservative Republicans used the crisis – and particularly the violent uprisings and riots - to oppose further urban anti-poverty programmes and to advocate for ‘law and order’. Nonetheless, the chapter explains why a small band of moderate and progressive Republicans were spurred by the crisis into saving Johnson’s War on Poverty when it looked set to be scrapped in 1967.