![]() ![]() “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white – separate and unequal,” the report declared. Patterns of racial unrest and violence that gripped American cities squarely at the feet of the nation’s political institutions were revealed. Otto Kerner and stacked with leading political, civil rights and policy experts, the Kerner Commission report unveiled the relationship between institutions of American democracy and structures of racial, economic and cultural segregation that turned predominantly black ghettos stretching from Los Angeles to Harlem into what was effectively another country. ![]() (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Hulton Archive/Getty Imagesġ0 quotes from 1968 report on race that resonate today (1929 - 1968) at the signing of the Civil Rights Act while officials look on, Washington DC. The commission’s sensitivity to the hopes and dreams of black folk trapped in segregated ghettos stood on the broad shoulders of civil rights activists such as King, even as the conditions patiently revealed the political environment that inspired black power activism and produced radical activist groups such as the Black Panthers. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination barely a month after its official publication. Its meticulous inquiry into the roots of urban poverty, police brutality and racial violence illuminated a toxic racial environment that would grow worse in the aftermath of the Rev. Statistics for 1967 alone included 83 people killed and 1,800 injured-the majority of them African Americans-and property valued at more than $100 million damaged or destroyed.Peniel Joseph Kelvin Ma/Tufts University/Kelvin Ma/Tufts UniversityĪs we observe Black History Month, it’s particularly important to recall how the findings of the presidentially appointed Kerner Commission rocked the nation, becoming a best-seller that combined passionate advocacy with principled social scientific inquiry to trace the roots of violence often characterized as “long hot summers” of racial and civil discontent. The report identified more than 150 riots or major disorders between 19 (including the deadly Newark and Detroit riots) and blamed “white racism” for sparking the violence-not a conspiracy by African American political groups as some claimed. ![]() READ MORE: Why the 1967 Kerner Report on Urban Riots Suppressed Its Own Expert Findings ![]() Unless drastic and costly remedies were undertaken at once, the report said, there would be a “continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.” The report, which declared that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white-separate and unequal,” called for expanded aid to African American communities in order to prevent further racial violence and polarization. Johnson in July 1967 to uncover the causes of urban riots and recommend solutions. Headed by Governor Otto Kerner of Illinois, the 11-member commission was appointed by President Lyndon B. The President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders-known as the Kerner Commission-releases its report, condemning racism as the primary cause of the recent surge of riots. ![]()
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