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Reflections on Kerner at 50: Introduction by Stephen Menendian & Richard Rothstein

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Reflections on Kerner at 50: Introduction by Stephen Menendian & Richard Rothstein January-March 2018 Volume 27: Number 1 Reflections on Kerner at 50: Introduction By Stephen Menendian & Richard Rothstein Fifty years ago the nation con- whites. This generated pent-up frus- Seeking to galvanize America into fronted a historical choice, but did not tration in low-income black neighbor- action, the Kerner Commission docu- act. In 1968 a special commission— hoods such that all it took was an “in- mented how government policy and established by President Lyndon citing event” to unleash civil unrest. private discrimination produced seg- Johnson to investigate why uprisings In fact, the first incident described regated living and occupational pat- broke out in more than 100 cities the in the Kerner report was the shooting terns from Reconstruction through Jim previous year—warned that America of a black teenager in the back by a Crow. The Commission presented was hurtling down a destructive path: white police officer in Tampa, setting three alternatives: One, continue the “Our nation is moving toward two off three days of riots. It was shades status quo, resulting in more riots, eco- societies, one black, one white—sepa- of Ferguson in 2014, or Baltimore in nomic decline, and the splintering of rate and unequal.” 2015—decades before Michael Brown our common national identity. Two, “To pursue our present course will and Freddie Gray were born. (Please turn to page 2) involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ulti- mately, the destruction of basic demo- cratic values.” In its dramatic report, the National IN THIS ISSUE: Advisory Commission on Civil Dis- Reflections on Kerner at 50: Introduction ........................ 1 orders, led by Illinois Governor Otto Stephen Menendian and Richard Rothstein Kerner, placed the blame for the 1967 A Matter of Democratic Survival .................................... 3 uprisings squarely on public and pri- Sherrilyn Ifill vate racial discrimination. As the re- Honoring the Promise ..................................................... 5 port explained, racial discrimination in Shaun Donovan housing, employment, health care, Getting It So Wrong, Making It Right ............................... 7 policing, education, and social services Sandra Susan Smith locked too many black Americans into Treating Racism as a Public Health Issue ........................ 8 schools, jobs, and neighborhoods that were far inferior to those enjoyed by Narintohn Luangrath & Leana Wen Incentivize the Transformation ........................................ 9 John Charles Boger Stephen Menendian, steve. Neighborhood Racial Inequality in American Society ... 10 [email protected], is the Assis- Robert J. Sampson tant Director and Director of Research Kerner: A Personal History ............................................. 11 at the Haas Institute for a Fair and Fred Harris Inclusive Society. Richard Rothstein, History, Origin, and Legacy of the Kerner Commission . 13 [email protected], is a Distinguished John Koskinen Fellow of the Economic Policy Insti- PRRAC Update .............................................................. 15 tute and the author of The Color of Resources ..................................................................... 17 Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. Poverty & Race Research Action Council • 740 15th Street NW • Suite 300 • Washington, DC 20005 202/866-0802 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.prrac.org Recycled Paper (MENENDIAN & ROTHSTEIN: from p. 1) ence organized by the Haas Institute mote economically and racially diverse for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC communities, as well as to protect the push for policies to improve black Berkeley, the Economic Policy Insti- ability of residents of high opportunity neighborhoods and thereby narrow the tute, and Johns Hopkins University, and integrating neighborhoods to re- gaps in income, education, housing took place February 27–March 1, main in those gentrifying places. and jobs, but without a commitment 2018, at UC Berkeley and Johns Sandra Smith draws attention to a to racial integration. Expressing skep- Hopkins University. Conference par- pernicious development since the ticism that “separate” could ever be ticipants envisioned what a contempo- Kerner Report, the rise of mass incar- “equal,” the Commission dismissed rary Kerner Commission might find ceration and its unmistakable contri- this option, explaining that even if suc- today, and they drafted a policy bution to racial inequality. Dr. Leanna cessful, the enrichment strategy would roadmap to tackle racial inequality in Wen and her colleague Narintohn produce a “permanently divided coun- America over the next 50 years. Luangrath share interventions that have try.” Or three, the only possible choice Like the Kerner report, this roadmap improved the lives of Baltimore resi- for America in view of the Commis- includes a comprehensive and wide- dents while illustrating the relationship sion, try to improve conditions in dis- ranging set of recommendations to between racial inequality and health advantaged neighborhoods in the short improve conditions in disadvantaged outcomes. Finally, drawing on decades run while embracing long-term pro- neighborhoods while removing dis- of original research, Robert Sampson grams to encourage the integration of criminatory and financial barriers that reminds us of the complexities we face black families into historically white still prevent African Americans from and the vital importance of tackling communities. “Integration,” the Com- moving out of overcrowded, low-in- both neighborhood disadvantage and mission said, “is the only course which come areas that lack access to good racial segregation simultaneously. Just explicitly seeks to achieve a single na- as the Kerner Commission understood, tion rather than accepting the present if we tackle only one or the other, we movement towards a dual society.” Most of the original will find ourselves in the same situa- Is it too late to adopt the Kerner Kerner Commission tion five decades from now. Commission’s preferred course of ac- recommendations were Most of the original Kerner Com- tion? Earlier this year more than three quickly found to be mission recommendations were dozen scholars, civil rights leaders, quickly found to be politically unsup- activists and policymakers joined politically portable. Johnson’s Democratic coa- former senator Fred Harris, the only unsupportable. lition was severely weakened by the surviving member of the Kerner Com- Vietnam War and Nixon ascended to mission, at a special conference, to power on a message of “law and or- tackle this question. jobs, high-performing schools, ad- der” that stoked racial resentment of This issue of Poverty & Race ex- equate health services, and even su- civil rights. But Kerner Commission plores their answers. In addition to permarkets with fresh food. @ 50 conference participants hope that abridged remarks from three of the Some of these recommendations are this time will be different. In the fol- keynote speakers, this issue contains 50 years old, including calls to end lowing pages, they explain why they five contributions from conference “stop-and frisk” policies, diversify think we can rebuff appeals to racial presenters reflecting on both the prob- local police forces, and increase resi- demagoguery and build a movement lems and contemporary policy solutions dential integration while massively in- to advance reforms that can produce a needed to finally address the issues and creasing the supply of housing subsi- more equitable future. ❏ themes raised by the landmark Kerner dies for poor families. Others are new, Stephen Menendian and Richard Commission report. including including revisions of fed- Rothstein were co-chairs of the Race Race & Inequality in America: The eral and state tax policies, proposed by & Inequality in America: The Kerner Kerner Commission @ 50, a confer- Jack Boger and John Koskinen, to pro- Commission at 50 conference held Feb- ruary 27-March 1, 2018 at UC Berke- ley and the Lewis Museum in Balti- Poverty & Race (ISSN 1075-3591) is published four times a year by the Poverty and more. For more information, includ- Race Research Action Council, 740 15th Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, ing videos of the conference and the 202/906-8052, fax: 202/842-2885, E-mail: info@ prrac.org. Megan Haberle, editor; executive summary of the Kerner Com- Heidi Kurniawan, editorial assistant. Subscriptions are $25/year, $45/two years. Foreign mission report and its recommenda- postage extra. Articles, article suggestions, letters and general comments are welcome, tions, please visit https://haasinstitute. as are notices of publications for our Resources Section—email to [email protected]. berkeley.edu/kerner50 Articles generally may be reprinted, providing PRRAC gives advance permission. © Copyright 2018 by the Poverty and Race Research Action Council. All rights reserved. 2 • Poverty & Race • Vol. 27, No. 1 • January-March 2018 A Matter of Democratic Survival Sherrilyn Ifill People think: everybody has a were powerfully situated in the his- form that sustains it. And that feelings race, and so everybody knows about tory of this community. That what I of bias and hostility coupled with fed- race. But civil rights is actually an in- was seeing then in 1997 was inextri- eral, state, and local government poli- credibly complex discipline. To do this cably tied to these events that happened cies produced racism that exists as a work, certainly to
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