Separate and Unequal: Racism and Poverty 50 Years After the Kerner Report

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, 1968 was a watershed year in our nation's history. That year saw the deadliest period of the Vietnam War and the peak of protests against that conflict. It saw the passage of the Fair Housing Act but the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. 1968 saw President Johnson announce that he would not run for a second term and Richard Nixon elected to succeed him.

In the midst of that tumultuous year, the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, issued its report examining the cause of riots and unrest that had occurred in inner cities and communities of color around the country.

After visiting those cities, interviewing witnesses, and consulting with experts, the Kerner Commission submitted its findings to President Johnson. That groundbreaking report remains important five decades later, not only as an historical document, but also because it describes the same issues of race that we struggle with today and how we can overcome them.

The Kerner Commission's report identified twelve grievances that were shared in the communities of color where the unrest had taken place. Among these were lack of economic opportunity, discrimination in the administration of justice, and inadequacy of education, housing, and social welfare programs.

These same problems persist today.

Employment: In 2018, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 7.7 percent, compared to just 4.1 percent overall, and black workers made 83 cents on the dollar compared to white workers.

Housing: only 41 percent of black households own their home, virtually the same as 1968, while over 70 percent of white families own their homes.

Education: schools are more segregated now than they were thirty years ago, and blacks are half as likely as whites to have a college degree.

Justice: blacks are incarcerated at a rate of 3.5 times higher than whites.

So we now find ourselves in the same situation as the one described in the Kerner report 50 years ago: ``Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal.''

Fortunately, the Kerner report also described a path to reverse the trend of racial division. It called for ``the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society'' that requires ``a commitment to national action--compassionate, massive and sustained, backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this earth. From every American it will require new attitudes, new understanding, and, above all, new will.''

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand with my colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus who embody the commitment to national action and the new will that the Kerner Commission called for 50 years ago.

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