Kerner Commission

To Understand America's Failure on Housing Desegregation, Look at the Capital City

by Kaila Philo

With federal support, the private housing market was built around racial segregation. To understand how federal fair housing law and policy adopted since the 1960s failed to undermine it, it's not necessary to venture too far from Capitol Hill. 

"The Essential Kerner Commission Report" Links Past and Present, but Abridges the Committee's Process

by James Thornton Harris

The Kerner Commission shocked Lyndon Johnson and much of white America by insisting that "the Negro problem" was in fact a problem of pervasive white racism. Two books are essential reading for understanding the commission's work and it's unmet demands. 

Podcast: Jelani Cobb on the Missed Lessons of the Kerner Commission

Cobb has edited a new annotated report of the Kerner Commission's findings, and argues that the report's unheeded recommendations are more important today than ever. 

A Warning Ignored: The Kerner Commission after a Half Century

by Jelani Cobb

The Kerner Report and the wave of unrest after the killing of George Floyd show that it is possible to be entirely cognizant of history and repeat it anyway.

The Deep Downward Spiral of Police Violence and Rebellion, Explained

by Hamilton Nolan

A conversation with Elizabeth Hinton, author of “America On Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s.”

More than 50 Years Before George Floyd, the Kerner Commission Predicted Deepening Divisions

Oklahoma Senator Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, discusses the commission's findings and how they were ignored. Historians including Jelani Cobb, Julian Zelizer and Steven Gillon also comment. 

Will We Ever Get Beyond "The Fire Next Time"?

by Elizabeth Hinton

"What we witnessed in 2020 was the latest manifestation of an ongoing crisis that could have been solved if elected officials had properly understood the root causes the first time around."

Recasting the ‘Riots’ of the 1960s as Rebellions by Blacks Under Siege

by Peniel E. Joseph

Peniel Joseph reviews Elizabeth Hinton's new book "America On Fire" and says it "reconceptualizes the Black freedom struggle between the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Black Lives Matter 2.0 demonstrations that galvanized the nation, and much of the world, in 2020."

We Were Warned about a Divided America 50 Years Ago. We Ignored the Signs

by Elizabeth Hinton

The 1968 Kerner Commission Report on civil disorders recommended a program of public employment, housing and school desegregation, and a basic minimum income to tackle economic inequality and racial segregation as conjoined problems, as well as police reforms. Lyndon Johnson shelved the report, and we pay the price today. 

Heed the Cornerman's Cry

by Mike McQuillan

The failure to heed the warnings of the Kerner Commission in 1968 – of a society divided by racism and inequality – has led to ongoing suffering and a politics of resentment over an ethic of mutual care.

What A 1968 Report Tells Us About The Persistence Of Racial Inequality

The dire economic inequalities between black and white Americans documented by the Kerner Commission's report have not vanished. 

It's Been Five Decades Since 1968, and Things are Somehow Worse

by Julian Zelizer

For those of us who study the 1960s or lived through those troubled times, it's hard to imagine things could be worse. But they are. 

How the Kerner Commission unmade American liberalism

by Steven M. Gillon

Instead of revitalizing the Democratic coalition, the commission's report exposed the fractures in American society.

The 1968 Kerner Commission Got It Right, But Nobody Listened

Released 50 years ago, the infamous report found that poverty and institutional racism were driving inner-city violence.

50 years after Kerner Commission report inequality persists

Barriers to equality pose threats to democracy in the U.S. as the country remains segregated along racial lines and child poverty worsens, according to a new study that examines the nation 50 years after the release of the landmark 1968 Kerner Report.

What Has Happened in Detroit Comprises a National Emergency

by Scott Kurashige

Fifty years ago America made a fateful choice. It’s now our turn to decide on a different path.

Remember the Kerner Commission Report? Here's What You Don't Know.

by Steven M. Gillon

What made it speak to America was the last-minute work of a couple of wordsmiths.