Report Of The National Advisory Commission On Civil Disorders

A landmark study of racism, inequality, and police violence that continues to hold important lessons today The Kerner Report is a powerful window into the roots of racism and inequality in the United States. Hailed by Martin Luther King Jr. as a "physician's warning of approaching death, with a prescription for life," this historic study was produced by a presidential commission established by Lyndon Johnson, chaired by former Illinois governor Otto Kerner, and provides a riveting account of the riots that shook 1960s America. The commission pointed to the polarization of American society, white racism, economic inopportunity, and other factors, arguing that only "a compassionate, massive, and sustained" effort could reverse the troubling reality of a racially divided, separate, and unequal society. Conservatives criticized the report as a justification of lawless violence while leftist radicals complained that Kerner didn’t go far enough. But for most Americans, this report was an eye-opening account of what was wrong in race relations. Drawing together decades of scholarship showing the widespread and ingrained nature of racism, The Kerner Report provided an important set of arguments about what the nation needs to do to achieve racial justice, one that is familiar in today’s climate. Presented here with an introduction by historian Julian Zelizer, The Kerner Report deserves renewed attention in America’s continuing struggle to achieve true parity in race relations, income, employment, education, and other critical areas.

"Twenty years after the 'long hot summer'... In February of this year, former Senator Fred Harris told a Today Show audience that the plight of black Americans has worsened since 1968, and the New York Times ran a feature article, '20 Years After the Kerner Report: Three Societies, All Separate." The famous Kerner Report shocked the nation almost as much as the rioting that had prompted President Johnson to appoint the commission, headed by Governor Kerner, in the first place. Tragically, its conclusions are only more valid and urgent today. The commission pointed to the continued polarization of society, the persistence of white racism, and other factors, and argued that only a 'compassionate, massive, and sustained' government effort could reverse the overall trend toward a racially divided, separate, and unequal society. In 1988 we can see the result of America's failure to confront these problems of racism and inequality."--

Recognizing that an historic study of American racism and police violence should become part of today’s canon, Jelani Cobb contextualizes it for a new generation. The Kerner Commission Report, released a month before Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1968 assassination, is among a handful of government reports that reads like an illuminating history book—a dramatic, often shocking, exploration of systemic racism that transcends its time. Yet Columbia University professor and New Yorker correspondent Jelani Cobb argues that this prescient report, which examined more than a dozen urban uprisings between 1964 and 1967, has been woefully neglected. In an enlightening new introduction, Cobb reveals how these uprisings were used as political fodder by Republicans and demonstrates that this condensed edition of the Report should be essential reading at a moment when protest movements are challenging us to uproot racial injustice. A detailed examination of economic inequality, race, and policing, the Report has never been more relevant, and demonstrates to devastating effect that it is possible for us to be entirely cognizant of history and still tragically repeat it.

Referred to as the Kerner Commission Report.