I’m not saying it’s the sole catalyst. no one is putting cocaine in a drink today, so it’s certainly possible that people were starting to figure out that it’s

I’m not saying it’s the sole catalyst. no one is putting cocaine in a drink today, so it’s certainly possible that people were starting to figure out that it’s a bad idea. But what I am saying is that white fear of “anything perceived to be black” was absolutely a driver of behavior at this time/place. I believe the popular cultural understanding of how bad race relations were at this time is understated.