Social Policy | |
Kerner Commission Report 30 Years Later |
Thirty years ago -- on March 1, 1968 -- the Kerner Commission issued its report and
prophesies on racial conditions in America following the wave of urban riots that began in
1965. The commission warned of inevitable further violence -- the consequence of ever-
blacker cities ringed by white suburbs. That prediction by the commission appointed by President Lyndon Johnson has
proved far off the mark.
And five out of six blacks now say they have white neighbors. Critics say that many studies of black-white relations over recent decades have erroneously concluded that blacks are worse off in terms of integration into white society than they were at the time of the Kerner report. The figures, however, tell a different story. Source: Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom (authors), "American Apartheid? Don't Believe It." Wall Street Journal, March 2, 1998. |