"A Complex Pattern of Past and Present Discrimination": Academics React to the Kerner Report
- Author:
- Center for History and New Media/American Social History Project
- Subject:
- Humanities
- Institution Name:
- American Social History Project/Center for History and New Media
- Collection:
- Many Pasts (CHNM/ASHP)
- Grade Level:
- Secondary, Post-secondary
- Abstract:
President Lyndon Johnson formed an 11-member National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders in July 1967 to explain the riots that plagued cities each summer since 1964 and to provide recommendations for the future. The Commission's 1968 report, informally known as the Kerner Report, concluded that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal." Unless conditions were remedied, the Commission warned, the country faced a "system of 'apartheid'" in its major cities. The Kerner report delivered an indictment of "white society" for isolating and neglecting African Americans and urged legislation to promote racial integration and to enrich slums--primarily through the creation of jobs, job training programs, and decent housing. President Johnson, however, rejected the recommendations. In April 1968, one month after the release of the Kerner report, rioting broke out in more than 100 cities following the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. In the following statements to joint Congressional hearings on urban employment problems in May and June of 1968, two academics related their findings regarding overt and institutionalized discrimination. They further argued that there were no simple solutions for overcoming the racial divide.
- Languages:
- English
- Material Type:
- Primary Source
- Media Format:
- Text/HTML
- Conditions of Use:
-
Custom License
Fair Use for educational purposes - Copyright Holder:
- Copyright 1998-2005 American Social History Productions, Inc. All rights reserved.
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