What are the motifs in The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge by T. J. English?

The black rights movement is a recurring idea in the story. One of the sparks that ignited the black liberation movement was the story of George Whitmore. Minding his own business and hoping to remain invisible and anonymous, George was plucked from the streets and railroaded into confessing to crimes he did not commit. One of these crimes was the infamous Career Girls Murder, the brutal slaying of two upper-middle class Manhattan women. Meanwhile, in the streets of New York City, the oppression of the black populace at the hands of a brutally violent NYPD was reaching epic proportions. It wasn't just New York City, of course, the racial tension could be felt across the nation.