Brandon T. Jett. Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South: African Americans and Law Enforcement in Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans, 1920–1945.

The article focuses on Brandon Jett's book *Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South: African Americans and Law Enforcement in Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans, 1920–1945*, which examines the development and function of southern police departments as instruments of racial control during the Jim Crow era. Jett's study highlights how these police forces aggressively enforced segregation and targeted Black communities while largely ignoring crimes against Black victims, prompting African Americans to strategically engage with law enforcement to seek limited protection and justice. Using extensive archival police records, the book reveals the complex and often fraught interactions between Black citizens and a police system designed to uphold white supremacy and protect whiteness. The work contributes to the "new police history" subfield by demonstrating that systemic racist policing in the United States has deep historical roots and was intentionally structured to marginalize Black safety and rights.