federal district court, Dees obtained an injunction or-
dering an end to such behavior, and the remainder of
the shrimp season proceeded peacefully.
Civil rights leaders experienced a number of
political setbacks during the decade. The adminis-
tration of President Ronald Reagan cut back on
governmental efforts to enforce laws prohibiting
discrimination in jobs and housing. The administra-
tion also opposed affirmative action programs and
attempted to reinstate tax breaks for private schools
that practiced racial segregation. In the presidential
election of 1988, the campaign of candidate George
H. W. Bush appeared to appeal to racial prejudices
in creating the infamous William Horton commer-
cials, which emphasized the criminal acts of an Afri-
can American prisoner on leave. In 1989, civil rights
leaders were even more shocked when former Klans-
man David Duke won a seat in Louisiana’s House of
Representatives.
One of the most controversial issues of the de-
cade was court-ordered busing as a tool for desegre-
gation. Although some federal district judges con-
tinued to order busing plans, the majority of plans
during the 1980’s had been ordered during the pre-
vious decade. Presidents Reagan and Bush were
both committed opponents of busing plans, and by
the middle of the decade their conservative appoint-
ments to the Supreme Court were beginning to have
an impact. In 1985, a district judge of Kansas City,
Missouri, ordered a particularly expensive magnet
school plan, and he also ordered increased taxes to
pay for the project. The Supreme Court would even-
tually overturn the plan in the two cases ofMissouri v.
Jenkin(1990 and 1995).
Impact From the perspective of civil rights, the de-
cade of the 1980’s was a time of both progressive
change and conservative backlash. African Ameri-
cans prevailed in several high-profile elections, and
there was abundant evidence that the level of white
racism continued its long-term trend of slowly de-
creasing. The Republican administrations, however,
were unenthusiastic about the enforcement of civil
rights laws, and the federal courts were definitely be-
coming more conservative, particularly regarding
the issues of school desegregation and affirmative
action.
Further Reading
Franklin, John Hope, and Alfred Moss, Jr.From Slav-
er y to Freedom: A Histor y of African Americans. New
York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. A standard survey that
provides a perspective on the struggle to achieve
equal rights for African Americans.
Schaefer, Richard.Racial and Ethnic Groups. 10th ed.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson, 1995. A useful
sociology textbook that surveys the historical ex-
periences of minorities, with an emphasis on is-
sues of prejudice, discrimination, and civil rights.
Schuman, Howard, et al.Racial Attitudes in America:
Trends and Interpretations. Cambridge, Mass.: Har-
vard University Press, 1997. A scholarly account of
public opinion on racial issues during the second
half of the twentieth century.
Small, Stephen.Racialized Barriers: The Black Experi-
ence in the United States and England in the 1980’s.
New York: Taylor & Francis, 1994. A comparative
study arguing that institutional patterns of in-
equality prevailed in both countries.
Walker, Samuel, et al.Color of Justice: Race, Ethnicity,
and Crime in America. New York: Wadsworth, 2006.
A comprehensive examination of the various is-
sues related to how African Americans and other
minorities have been treated in the criminal jus-
tice system.
Thomas Tandy LewisSee also Affirmative action; African Americans;
Asian Americans; Brawley, Tawana; Glass ceiling;
Howard Beach incident; Latinos; Native Americans.Radon
Definition Radioactive gas and health hazard
Radon, an odorless, colorless gas produced when radium (a
decay product of uranium) disintegrates, was found in
high concentrations in basements and crawl spaces of
homes during the 1980’s. Breathing radon daughters (solid
particles from radon) increases the risk of lung cancer, espe-
cially in smokers.
The prevalence of radon in homes was discovered by
accident in 1984 when a nuclear power plant engi-
neer, Stanley Watras, set off a radiation detector at
work in Limerick, Pennsylvania. An investigation of
his home revealed a radon level 650 times greater
than normal. Although it had been known that ra-
don could enter homes, previously no one had real-
ized the enormity of the threat. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) official Richard GuimondThe Eighties in America Radon 791