Paper details The paper should have a thesis, a point of view. Please no biographies. Discuss Harry Anslinger’s view on jazz and its involvement with drugs. How the results may have been different If he would have chosen to work with jazz musicians instead of blaming them, I believe he would have been a lot more effective at seeing positive results on the war on drugs. (Less overdoses and lower addiction and violence)
This topic, is, however, a good start as it directly relates to the overtly racist drug policies and societal context that very much influenced jazz and that jazz often directly responded to – although I think talking about Anslinger’s policies could definitely be beneficial, I may suggest focusing primarily on the jazz artists affected by them rather than Harry himself. I will source from here: https://usnewsbeat.medium.com/racism-weed-jazz-the-true-origins-of-the-war-on-drugs-8e6fd4ef813 as well as other sources I dive into.
