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The Kerner Commission + 40 years

March 29th, 2008

Subsequent to the 1967 urban riots, President Lyndon Johnson created a commission to assess the causes. His instruction to them: “Let your search be free, as best you can, find the truth and express it in your report.”

This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the landmark and controversial Kerner Report. The commission was chaired by Democratic Illinois Governor Otto Kerner with Republican New York City Mayor John Lindsay as Vice Chair.

“What white Americans have never fully understood - but what the Negro can never forget - is that the white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it. White institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

The Report’s memorable conclusion: “Our nation is moving toward two societies - one white, one black - separate and unequal.”

The Kerner Report was heavily criticized among conservatives for blaming, as Richard Nixon stated, “everybody but the rioters themselves.”

This week, the Eisenhower Foundation has issued a preliminary anniversary report on race: “What Together We Can Do: A Forty Year Update of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.”

“America has, for the most part, failed to meet the Kerner Commission’s goals of less poverty, inequality, racial injustice and crime.”

At a time when we are mid-conversation about words spoken by Trinity United Church of Christ’s pastor Jeremiah Wright that have shocked many Americans, in the wake of Barack Obama’s powerful speech A More Perfect Union, as we wrap up our first season discussing economic segregation in Tallahassee, perhaps it’s time for some really honest talk.

Stay tuned.

Entry Filed under: Economic segregation