The Kerner Commission On Racial Unrest, 50 Years Later

Published March 1, 2018 at 10:00 AM CST

FILE - In this July 24, 1967 file photo, a Michigan State police officer searches a youth on Detroit's 12th Street where looting was still in progress after the previous day's rioting. The last surviving member of the Kerner Commission says he remains haunted that the panel's recommendations on US race relation and poverty were never adopted, but he is hopeful they will be one day. Former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris says 50 years after working on a report to examine the causes of the late 1960s race riots he strongly feels that poverty and structural racism still enflames racial tensions even as the United States becomes more diverse. (AP Photo/File)

The Kerner Commission Report on racial inequality in America. Fifty years after riots rocked America, they’re taking another look at what’s changed, and what hasn’t.

This show airs Thursday at 11 a.m. EST.

Guests:

Alan Curtis, president and CEO of the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation who co-edited the foundation’s report, “Healing Our Divided Society.”

The Rev. Traci Blackmon, executive minister of Justice and Local Church Ministries for the United Church of Christ. ( @pastortraci)

Ben Domenech, publisher of The Federalist. ( @bdomenech)

From The Reading List:

Washington Post: Fifty Years After The Kerner Commission, A New Report Cites Some Of The Same Concerns About Race And Poverty — “When dozens of urban areas across the country erupted in flames in the late 1960s, a commission appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson concluded that pervasive poverty and racism were major causes of the unrest.

Fifty years later, those twin conditions are again causing friction in American society, say the authors of a new report, who include the last living member of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.”

Back in 1967, dozens of American cities exploded in rage, riots, and arson. President Johnson formed the Kerner Commission to investigate: it researched, held hearings, and gave this sobering verdict: there were two Americas…black and white, separate and unequal. On the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission Report, a look at how much, and how little we’ve accomplished. This hour, On Point: Still separate, still unequal? — Ray Suarez