Divisive times in American History. A time that marks the emergence of a postcivil rights racial order that defines american psyd today. Formally known as the National Advisory committee on civil disorders, president johnson establish the committee in july following violent racial confrontations in newark and detroit which left 69 people africanamericans, and city blocks burned to the ground. That summer there were more than 150 riots around the United States. Ignited byriots were incidents of Police Brutality. Of growingtime racial and Political Polarization and the retreats from the progressive reform agenda ushered in by the Civil Rights Movement and Great Society legislation or the factors were the war in vietnam, the republican sweep in the 1960 Midterm Elections, a law and a liberalismm, and insulated from the realities of black life and dismissive of lack protests after 1965 from the evolution of Martin Luther kings leadership to black power. What senator harris described as americas greatest investor crisis since the civil war, Lyndon Johnson established a Bipartisan Commission on july 7, 1967 to answer three questions. What happened during the riots, why did they happen, and how to prevent them from happening again. Over the next seven months the commissioners and the staff they assembled pursued a probing examination of conditions that fueled the riots, including visits to 23 cities to interview residents and activists. An eyeopening confrontation with realities invisible to most politicians and policymakers. A context, and significance. I will introduce them in t the Kerner Commission produced a 704page report that sold 2 million copies. We have a group here today prepared to offer insight into the report, the historical context, and significance. I will introduce them in the order in which they will present. Julian zelizer, professor of history and Public Affairs at Princeton University and a news commentator on cnn. He is the author of numerous books on american political history. The author of numerous books on american political history. His recent book is a monumental study of lbjs legislative season which produced civil rights legislation, the war on poverty, and transformative initiatives. He published a new edition of the Kerner Commission report which includes an excellent introduction. Julian zelizer will consider the policy constraints and considering the political backlash that was underway by 1968. Is a professor at trinity college, dublin. His work focuses on the intellectual, political, and cultural significance of the United States. , the moynahan legacy provides a critique of the controversy of the 1965 report regarding africanamerican families, including the role of black feminists in shaping the debate. He will develop tensions within the Kerner Commission and growing divisions among liberals regarding policing, civil liberties, and how to address africanamerican inequality. Elizabeth hinton is the assistant professor of history in africanamerican studies at harvard university. Her research focuses on the persistence of poverty in the United States. On the war onhor poverty to the war on crime the making of mass incarceration in america which was published in 2016. Recommendations when it comes to policing and black urban communities. Had worked with the Public Health service and the National Institute of Mental Health before joining the staff of the Kerner Commission. Produced the team that harvest of american racism, a controversial report on policing the firingh led to of him and his associates and the suppression of the report. As an assistant to Police Reform or patrick first andshingtons only director of Public Safety. In his work in policing practices and criminal Justice Reform and academic training, his career has included in the publick and private sector and a faculty appointment at Carnegie Mellon university. This year, harvest of american racism will be published by the university of michigan prep. His comments will draw on his experience in the Kerner Commission and controversy surrounding harvest of american racism. Elizer. Begin with z thank you for coming and putting the panel together. It is a pleasure to speak on this topic. Until year ago we had a president that understood the need to address the problem of institutional racism that had been broadcast to the entire world through smartphones and criminalf a Racialized Justice system. We now have a president and Republican Congress who shifted the agenda towards the theme of law and order and away from policies that were under 2016. Sion in 2015 and this is not the first time we have seen this. When questions over race and policing were front and center in 1968, the federal government failed to take the steps necessary to make any concrete changes. The government understood how institutional racism was playing out in the cities, and how it exploded into violence in the summer of 1967. The electorate was confused by Richard Nixons calls for law , leaving and crackdown most of the problems of institutional racism untouched. Rather than deal with the way racism was inscribed in many institutions, the government focused its attention on building a massive and cultural several car state andal police state. In july of 1967 in the aftermath of the riots in detroit and newark, new jersey, and smaller startedeach of which off with incidents of police againsty africanamericans, president Lyndon Johnson establish the National Advisory commission on civil disorder, known popularly as the Kerner Commission for chairman auto koerner otto kerner. Politicallye at a fraught time for president johnson. The socalled concer conservatie coalition and congress was bleeding and insurgents following 1966 where republicans in the backlash against some of the Lyndon Johnsons policies. Disastrous vietnam war was consuming most of the president s attention and conservatives on capitol hill were starting to force Lyndon Johnson to make a decision between spending for guns or spending for butter. The black Power Movement turning tensions toward bolder stands that were needed on housing discrimination, policing, and unemployment. Desperate to do something, but not in a position to do much more than defend his existing accomplishments, president johnson created the commission we are discussing. The president staffed much of the commission with established moderate political figures who were committed to working within the existing system. He wanted them to demonstrate to the public the administration took the problem seriously, but also to avoid making any embarrassing recommendations that would cause political problems. Johnson was cognizant of the problemsand racial afflicting cities, but felt there was not much more he could do. By late 1967 given the politics of the moment. Which is why the first version of the report would be killed. Commission staffers, with the lead member on our panel, produced a radical draft of the report in november of 1967 called the harvest of american recounted the deepseated racial divisions that shaped urban america with damaging conclusions about johnsons programs. The report said only offered moderate assistance while leaving the white power structure in place. Rioting as anted understandable political response to the conditions of the city. A truly revolutionary spirit had begun to take hold, it said. An unwillingness to compromise, to risk death rather than have people continue in subordination. Report andinated the eliminated the social scientists who worked on it. The final kerner report was hardhitting, especially given where we have come today. Basic conclusion is our nation is moving towards 2 societies, one black, one white, and an equal. The softened much of language from the original draft, but the argument remained quite powerful, the focus on institutional racism. Meaning racism was not a product of that individuals who believed africanamericans were inferior to white americans, but racial hierarchies were indebted in the structure of society. Segregation and poverty, the report said, created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment unknown to most white americans. What white americans have never fully understood in the negro league and never forget is why society is implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, maintain it, and White Society condones it. The riots in detroit and newark were not caused, nor were they the consequences of, any. Rganized plan or conspiracy the Police Received the most scrutiny. In a section of the report it believed negros firmly Police Brutality and harassment occur repeatedly in negro neighborhoods. Had shown Police Enforcement had become a problem, not a solution, in race relations. More aggressive policing and the militarization of officers had he come the de facto response to urban decay. In several cities, the principal train theas been to equipped with more sophisticated weapons. Stressedt Law Enforcement officers were to thetart factor riots, but had come to symbolize white power and white racism. They argued they had to stop arming the police and recruit more africanamericans into the forces and impose stricter guidelines. They would to cry the commissioners from backing away from the tougher language. Language that would acknowledge the violence was often used in fashion against protesters and helpfully Police Brutality against africanamericans was constant, not sporadic. In 1968 the kerner report included tough language from an official government body. The commissioners warned of nothingconsequences if changed. Johnson tried to ignore it as long as possible and refused to formally meet with the commissioners. He didnt want to talk about the report for weeks. The public did not ignore it and the press broke the story. , a 700 plusuction page paperback with the bestseller list in 1968. The kerner report was the fastest selling book sense valley of the dolls. Marlon brando even read part of the book out loud on the joey bishop show. Environment had changed so dramatically since 1964. Any historians stressed of the limits of the report and johnson, it is to understand what the political environment had been when the report came out which constrained part of what he could do. The report made recommendations employment,nts in education, and housing that johnson knew would not move through congress. A respected pollster told were to be Congress Given such a program at this time, i presume it will not pass. Believing that white middleclass voters would determine the Midterm Election said i would follow a program of lot and order balanced with goodies for the ghetto. That is what happened. The government and public moved in a different direction. Johnson decides not to run for reelection. Vice president humphrey concentrated energy on trying to find some solution to vietnam. Despite his historic role in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 feared that the power of the right was going to be more important than the power of the left. He kept a distance from some of the grassroots activists who were urging the party to do more on the recommendation. It was former Vice PresidentRichard Nixon and alabama wallen whoorge framed the way americans would talk about racial unrest and governor wallace did not hold back. The people know the way to stop a right is to hit someone on the. Ad anxietiesed to these with a way that would resonate with the mainstream. Blasting liberal Court Decisions on crime and denouncing radical Civil Rights Activists who accepted violence as a means of protest. He called for a means to restore law and order. We have been amply warned, he said, that we face war in the making of our own society. We have seen the gathering hate. We have threats to burn, bomb, and destroyed. A taste of what the organizers of insurrection are planning. We must take the warning star heart and prepare to meet with force if necessary. He fine tuned some of these arguments in the 1966 midterm when he campaigned around the country helping republicans gain elections. Now he had a better atmosphere to sell his message. D we all of the decent, lawabiding citizens of america to take the defensive against the criminal forces that threaten their security and rebuild respect for law across the country. His law and order arguments won the day. Books such as the new jim crow, booksizabeth and dans cover these became the foundation for a racially unequal Justice System that exists today. One that disproportionately punishes and africanamerican and revolves around a prison system, Police Forces, and sentences individuals with minor crimes to jail. The problem is politics have moved again in the wrong direction. A little bit like what happened. Fter 1968 Structural Racism has to be addressed and President Trump and the Republican Congress has criminald progress on Justice Reform. In charlottesville the president sent a clear message when he hesitated and resisted coming down hard against american nazis. President trump will likely play to some of the worst racial sentiment in the country, and use this moment to build an expansion of the criminal Justice System rather than change it. In the 1960s the United States so what could happen if institutional racism was allowed to persist. Of racial violence americans witnessed in the past few years has brought the nation to a comparable Inflection Point and has moved in the wrong direction. This makes grassroots activism and a pushback against more urgent than ever before. Thank you. [applause] the kerner report has often been recognized as a quintessential document of american liberalism. Reflecting the governments ability to understand the underlying poverty as it saw as the root cause of the urban uprising of 1967. No other document embodies the strengths and limitations of 1960s liberalism and endorsed racial integration, valued civil liberties, generating policies and enlightening the public, and that americas problems could be solved within the established political system. It would be a mistake to see the kerner report as reflecting in monolithic liberal response the issues of inequality and policing raised by the uprising. My comment will highlight the divisions among liberals that have too often been overlooked by historians. I will thereby contest some of the standard interpretations of liberalism that contrasts a coherent liberalism to existing conservatism, or assume that a liberal consensus pervaded american politics, or that c 1960s liberals paving the way for massive incarceration and over policing. None of these interpretations account for the heterogeneity of postwar liberalism which we can see in the making of the kerner report that embodied three strands of liberalism. First of all, Lyndon Johnsons liberalism. He commissioned the report, but famously disowned it. D by the republican victories, the vietnam war, and uprisings which seemed to reveal liberalisms faults. It seemed like liberalism was making a quick retreat after the seeming triumph of the Great Society. I wont say too much more, except that we cannot take the Johnson Administrations policies as the whole of liberalism at this time. Secondly, the liberalism of the Kerner Commission itself. This was a liberalism that was far bolder and more ambitious than johnsons liberalism and the liberalism of the Great Society a few years before. Commission envisioned massive spending to address the problems it saw behind the uprising. A Bipartisan Commission advocated programs of the kind that only someone like bernie. Anders today would contemplate they went beyond this to examine the causes of civil disorders and how to prevent them and offer a comprehensive statement on the social and Economic Conditions of lower class africanamericans. It called for significant social investment in employment, education, and housing to be funded by tax increases if needed. The kerner report endorsed civil for a leaders calls Marshall Plan for investment in African American ghettos. This was hardly