By Marc Parry. In September, Fortner will publish a book that tries to correct that narrative. The study, Black Silent Majority (Harvard University Press), focuses on black activism and narcotics-policy development in New York in the decades leading up to passage of the Rockefeller drug laws in 1973, which Fortner identifies as a turning point in the spread of punitive sentencing practices. The book looks at how growing disorder and addiction drove many working- and middle-class people in Harlem and elsewhere to mobilize for tougher crime policies. More...