The summer of 1967 again brought racial disorders to American cities, and with them shock, fear and bewilderment to the nation.
The worst came during a two-week period in July, first in Newark and then in Detroit.
Each set off a chain reaction in neighboring communities.
On July 28, 1967, the President of the United States established this Commission and directed us to answer three basic questions:
What happened?
Why did it happen?
What can be done to prevent it from happening again?”
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON
CIVIL DISORDERS (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), pp. 1.
Little did I know when I wrote by last two blog posts on the lack of domestic social policy in the U.S. today that those posts would coincide with the 40th anniversary of the Kerner Commission Report (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1968). I did not know that the admonitions and observations I expressed were mild compared to those of the Commission but equally ignored by those in power.
The Kerner Commission Report reminds us that as the country becomes more widely divided by class and our government’s attention is not focused at home (Vietnam in the 60’s and Iraq today), we become increasingly vulnerable to political dissatisfaction, civic unrest and at the extreme end of the spectrum, civil disobedience. This phenomenon, according to the Kerner Report, occurs without the aid of any organizing entity. The only conspiracy is that between lack of responsible public policy and increasing human suffering.
The report is a cautionary tail that all Americans should heed. It acknowledges that when the people are ignored, when the country’s leaders have no vision are pre-occupied with their own personal demons and expend their time, our treasure and our lives outside our boarders, we put ourselves at risk. We are once more on the precipice of the same conditions. I ask the question again: What about us? Have we learned nothing from our history? The summary of the Kerner Commission Report follows. Read it with care.
“I read that report. . . of the 1919 riot in Chicago, and it is as if I were reading the report of the investigating committee on the Harlem riot of '35, the report of the investigating committee on the Harlem riot of '43, the report of the McCone Commission on the Watts riot.
I must again in candor say to you members of this Commission--it is a kind of Alice in Wonderland--with the same moving picture re-shown over and over again, the same analysis, the same recommendations, and the same inaction.
These words come to our minds as we conclude this report.
We have provided an honest beginning. We have learned much. But we have uncovered no startling truths, no unique insights, no simple solutions. The destruction and the bitterness of racial disorder, the harsh polemics of black revolt and white repression have been seen and heard before in this country.
It is time now to end the destruction and the violence, not only in the streets of the ghetto but in the lives of people.
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON
CIVIL DISORDERS (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), pp. 1-29.
After WWII, hundreds of thousands of black families poured into northern cities to escape, the scourge of overt racism and Jim Crow. They were greeted with “good jobs” with plenty of overtime and you didn’t have to have any paper (a degree) to get a job. And boy, the money was good! The unions saw to that! The Black middle-class began to grow. The heavy industry that employed thousands gave rise to the growing numbers of the Black middle class. These jobs along with government employment at every level had brought back the hope that Black men could be real men in this newly integrated country. They could be real men who could give the gift of a better life, education and an easier life than theirs to their children. Racism was still present but it was subtler, more insidious and not so much “in your face.” We were willing to live with that.
Though we rejoiced at the passing of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and became fully enfranchised by the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Our reverie would not last long. Just as we were about to get a leg up, they moved the ladder.
Many of us remember the long hot summers of the mid to late 1960’s. Racial tensions reached a zenith during these years. Cities became virtual tinder boxes ready to ignite at any moment and with good reason. Dr. King was exhorting us to exercised discipline and gain strength by continuing to practice non-violence. On the other hand, the seeds of Black Power were being sewn and we saw the emergence of Malcolm X exhorting Black people not to take it any more and the infancy the Black Panther movement that embraced the community but advocated for assertiveness and pride among Black people. Feeding and teaching children to be proud as the Panthers did was revolutionary. It scared white America to death.
Despite federal legislation and the presence of effective black leaders, segregation persisted. It was seemingly intractable. Lynchings continued in the South. Police brutalized black men for recreation in the North. And we were virtually still powerless to do anything about it.
Over the course of less than a decade, thousands of black men in Detroit, Cleveland, Newark and across the nation found themselves standing on street corners, sitting on stoops and under shade trees from sun up to sundown seeking respite from the stifling heat of their unair-conditioned homes and apartments and the accusatory glances of their wives. Wives and mothers who knew if a man was not working, trouble would soon follow. Both, mothers and fathers sought respite from the bewildered looks on the faces of their children who wondered why Daddy didn’t go to work any more.
They had no work and no place to go because manufacturing and assembly jobs were moving away from central cities to the suburbs leaving behind the empty, hulking shells of once productive of automobile and steel plants, lost tax bases and fewer services for neighborhoods.
The exodus was deliberately aided by the policies of the federal government. VA loans and FHA loan guarantees were plentiful for returning white soldiers but often denied the Black ones and the new Interstate highways made fleeing the city all the more attractive. It was so extreme that some neighborhoods turned from white to black seemingly overnight. The forces of racism and fear were unstoppable as realtors and bankers engaged in “block-busting,” i.e., spreading rumors that blacks were moving into the neighborhood to frighten whites into selling. It worked.
As whites fled the inner-cities following the jobs to the newly built suburbs and, in their minds, escaping to safety, Blacks who had succeeded in their struggle to better their lives moved into the newly available homes in city neighborhoods. Beautiful black communities emerged filled with hard working, disciplined, aspiring Black people who just wanted what every other American wanted--to realize the American Dream. They built businesses, churches, institutions social and fraternal organizations. Life was good for us in that fleeting moment in history.
Soon, however, rifts began to develop in the Black community. No longer segregated in ghettos where rich, middle-class and poor people all had to learn to live together and self-regulate their society, class began to become an issue among Blacks. Poor people grew poorer and more desperate. Federal welfare policy was undermining poor Black families and forcing fathers and men out of their family homes in order to receive assistance. The Black middle class tried to separate themselves from poor blacks as did whites. Neighborhood barbershops and bars across the county were alive with debates over the seemingly divergent approaches of Dr. King and Malcolm X. The fabric of the community was straining at the seems.
Poverty and infant mortality rates among blacks were triple and quadruple those of whites. The high-rise housing projects built in the late forties and fifties as transitional housing for vets and widows with children had become vertical ghetto prisons for poor Black people. They were worse than the tenement slums they were built to replace during the federal governments urban renewal efforts. At least back then you could go outside.
Crime was rampant and heroin was the drug of choice. The police forces of our nations cities were still largely segregated and most cops did not live in the cities they were responsible for protecting. Police brutality was the norm, not the exception. Police protected and served themselves more often than not at the expense of Black men. Many city police departments were riddled with corruption with cops in cahoots with the very criminals, mayors and other government officials, white and black who were destroying communities either with their actions or in refusing to take action and looking the other way. Money bought protection and power. We just didn't call them "lobbyists" back then.
So, it should have been no surprise when racial confrontations escalated into full-scale urban riots in Newark, New Jersey; New York City; Cleveland, Ohio; Washington, D.C.; Chicago, Illinois; and Atlanta, Georgia; and Detroit, Michigan.
Today, Blacks make $.60 for each dollar similarly educated and experienced whites make. Black infant mortality this at least three times that of whites. Black men and boys are 455 times more likely to be incarcerated that white men and boys. The gulf between the haves and have nots is growing across the board. Children are graduating from public high schools unable to read. Crack babies are growing to adulthood. Now, I ask you: where is the war to be fought? Homeland security is at risk. Our government’s incompetence and some would say negligence in responding to hurricanes Katrina and Rita brought the crisis at home into sharp relief. We are the new Western front. All will not be quiet for long.
“Reaction to last summer's disorders has quickened the movement and deepened the division. Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American life; they now threaten the future of every American.
This deepening racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice and to press for a national resolution.
To pursue our present course will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.
The alternative is not blind repression or capitulation to lawlessness. It is the realization of common opportunities for all within a single society.
This alternative will require 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.”
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON
CIVIL DISORDERS (New York: Bantam Books, 1968), pp. 1.
We had the will to attach Iraq. We have the will to spend $12 million a month to prosecute that war. We found $30 million to bail out Bear Stearns yet we leave the war at home largely un- or under funded. Time is running out. The dominoes have already started to fall.
See the following links to learn more about the battles to be fought here at home on the fronts of health, economic opportunity, family stability, education, affordable housing, race and ethnicity, public infrastructure, the environment, global warming, disaster preparedness, etc.
Peace,
Yvonne
www.eisenhowerfoundation.org/docs/kerner.pdf (Kerner Report)
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/black_health.htm (Centers for Disease Control)
http://ncmhd.nih.gov/hdFactSheet_gap.asp (National Institutes of Health)
http://www.covenantwithblackamerica.com/ (Covenant with Black America)
