A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of CIVIL RIGHTS DURING THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION, 1963-1969 Part V: Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA A Guide to the Microfilm Edition of BLACK STUDIES RESEARCH SOURCES: Microfilms from Major Archival Manuscript Collections August Meier and John H. Bracey, Jr. General Editors CIVIL RIGHTS DURING THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION, 1963-1969 Part V: Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission) A collection from the holdings of The Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas Editor Steven F. Lawson Project Coordinated and Guide Compiled by Robert E. Lester A microfilm project of UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA, INC. 44 North Market Street • Frederick, MD 21701 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Civil rights during the Johnson administration [microform]. (Black studies research sources : microfilms from major archival and manuscript collections) Contents: pt. 1. The White House central files- pt. 2. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission- [etc.]~ pt. 5. Records of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kemer Commission). 1. Afro-Americans-Civil rights-History--20th century-Sources. 2. Civil rights movements-United States--History--201h century-Sources. 3. United States-Politics and government-1963-1969-Sources. 4. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library-Archives. I. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library. II. Series. E185.615 323.1'196073 86-893398 ISBN 0-89093-903-9 (microfilm : pt. V) Copyright © 1987 by University Publications of America, Inc. All rights reserved. ISBN 0-89093-903-9. NOTE ON SOURCES The records of the Kerner Commission are located at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library, Austin, Texas, Record Group 282, Records of Temporary Committees, Commissions, and Boards. These files document the Commission's creation and contain the working papers of its operation and preparation for the Final Report. EDITORIAL NOTE Executive Order #11365, establishing the Kerner Commission, provided for the publication of an Interim Report by March 1,1968, and a Final Report by July 29,1968. Since time was an essential factor, the Commission decided in December 1967 that the Interim and Final Reports would be issued as a single report by March 1,1968. In this way the major conclusions and recommendations of the Commission might be applied so that a recurrence of the previous summer's disorders could be avoided in the summer of 1968. Dr. Steven F. Lawson, collection editor, selected material from the voluminous holdings (219 cubic feet) that detail the Commission's investigation stages and resulting accumulated information. Repro- duced are the subject [office] files of its staff—executive director, investigations director, congres- sional relations director, and associate director for public safety—as well as Commissioner Fred R. Harris's files, including internal reports, research obtained from consultants and government agen- cies, and correspondence with public officials and private citizens. Finally, the collection offers complete transcripts of the Commission's extensive hearings. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction vii Scope and Content Note ix Acronym List xi Reel Index Reels 1-5 Commission Meetings [Series 1] 1 Reel 6 Commission Meetings [Series 1] cont 9 General Counsel and Public Safety Hearings [Series 4] 10 Memoranda and Attachments Sent to the Commission [Series 5] 10 Reels 7-8 Memoranda and Attachments Sent to the Commission [Series 5] cont 11 Reel9 Memoranda and Attachments Sent to the Commission [Series 5] cont 16 Government Agencies Publications [Series 19] 16 Subject Files of the Director of Investigations [Series 20] 16 Reels 10-12 Subject Files of the Associate Director for Public Safety [Series 21] 19 Reel 13 Subject Files of the Associate Director for Public Safety [Series 21] cont 27 Selected Substantive Letters Received by the Commission before the Publication of the Final Report [Series 29] : 28 Reel 14 Selected Substantive Letters Received by the Commission before the Publication of the Final Report [Series 29] cont 31 Letters Received after the Publication of the Final Report [Series 30] 31 Data Relating to the Commission Hearings [Series 31] 32 Reading Files of Various Commission Officials [Series 37] 35 General Subject File of the Office of Information [Series 39] 36 Reel 15 General Subject File of the Office of Information [Series 39] cont 38 Administration of Justice: Files of Henry B. Taliaferro [Series 43] 38 Files of Commissioner (Senator) Fred R. Harris [Series 44] 42 Subject Files of the Office of the Executive Director [Series 46] 43 Reels 16-17 Subject Files of the Office of the Executive Director [Series 46] cont 44 Reel 18 Subject Files of the Office of the Executive Director [Series 46] cont 52 Subject Files of the Special Assistant to the Executive Director [Series 47] 58 Reel 19 Subject Files of the Special Assistant to the Executive Director [Series 47] cont 58 Reel 20 Subject Files of the Special Assistant to the Executive Director [Series 47] cont 59 Subject Files of the Deputy Executive Director [Series 48] 60 Reel 21 Subject Files of the Deputy Executive Director [Series 48] cont 61 Reel 22 Subject Files of the Deputy Executive Director [Series 48] cont 64 Subject Files of the Special Assistant to the Deputy Executive Director [Series 49] 65 Research Studies of Other Government Agencies [Series 51] 66 Reel 23 Research Studies of Other Government Agencies [Series 51] cont 67 Subject Files of Robert Conot [Series 59] 67 Reels 24-26 Subject Files of Robert Conot [Series 59] cont 70 Reel 27 Subject Files of Robert Conot [Series 59] cont 79 Files of Howard Margolis [Series 60] 80 Addenda Final Report, GPO [Government Printing Office] Material [Series 16] 81 Reel 28 Addenda cont. Data on the Department of the Army [Series 23] 81 Office of Investigations—City Files [Series 4 of Embargoed Material] 83 Subject Index 87 INTRODUCTION When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law on August 6,1965, many Americans considered the goals of the civil rights movement fulfilled. A year earlier, Congress had passed a comprehensive statute barring racial segregation in public accommodations, expanding federal enforcement of public school integration, and providing legal machinery to combat employ- ment bias. Together with the suffrage law, these measures went a long way toward demolishing Jim Crowism and opening up the political system to Afro-Americans. However, jubilation over passage of these long-awaited proposals came to an abrupt end. On August 11, less than a week after President Johnson authorized the enfranchisement of thousands of southern blacks, an explosive riot in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California, shattered the sense of elation over these recent achieve- ments. The eruption in Watts was more destructive than any of the race riots that had broken out in several cities a year earlier. Violence during these "long, hot summers" continued throughout the rest of the 1960s, reaching a peak in 1967. That year saw rioting mainly in northern cities, most prominently Newark and Detroit, which left over ninety people dead, more than fourthousand wounded, and some seventeen thousand arrested. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the next year, violence consumed the ghettos of over one hundred cities, including the nation's capital, leaving another forty-six killed and more than three thousand injured. Overall, from 1965 to 1968, approxi- mately a half-million blacks in three hundred cities participated in these upheavals that resulted in fifty thousand arrests, eight thousand injuries, and more than $100 million in property damage. These convulsions were sparked by black rage in urban ghettos chiefly in the North, though some southern cities such as Tampa, Florida, were gripped by rioting. Unlike the South where the civil rights movement had centered, in the North blacks could vote and did not encounter racial segregation by law. Instead, the rioters' complaints stemmed from a lack of real economic and political power. Their furious outbursts expressed genuine discontent with living conditions in the ghettos—slum housing, rat infestation, unemployment, police brutality, and a lack of control over local institutions. The burning and looting that accompanied these riots displayed the pent-up anger against white law enforcement officers and merchants who were perceived as the most visible agents of white exploitation in the black community. The menacing cries of "Burn Baby Burn" and "Get Whitey" replaced the soothing calls for "Black and White Together" that had originally guided the civil rights struggle. The riots polarized white Americans and brought mixed results for blacks. One response was for federal, state, and local governments to appropriate funds and establish crash programs to alleviate some of the grievances highlighted by the bloody uprisings. More commonly, however, white officials and their constituents advocated tough measures to repress the rioters, who were seen as common criminals and not as freedom fighters. The force of this white backlash helped propel the segregationist governor of Alabama, George Wallace, as a serious presidential candidate and contributed to the election of the conservative Richard Nixon to the White House in 1968. In the political arena, the advocates of "Law and Order" triumphed over the proponents of "Equality and Justice," and a crucial phase of the