![]() ![]() It is remarkable that an official government document like this describes these truths in such plain language, but the findings themselves are unremarkable in a country founded on the enslavement of Black people. In an address to the country he referred to himself as “president of law and order.” On a call with local leaders on Monday June 1, Trump called governors weak while expressing anger with Democratic mayors over the unrest. According to The Atlantic, Nixon viewed the Kerner Commission’s report as too permissive and ran on a platform that blamed the “race riots” on Democratic leadership as he promised to restore “law and order” to America. Later that year, Richard Nixon won the presidency. ![]() Less than two months after the report was released, Dr. Weapons which are designed to destroy, not to control, have no place in densely populated urban communities.” These words, published in 1968, still ring clear and true in 2020. ![]() The atmosphere of hostility and cynicism is reinforced by a widespread belief among Negroes in the existence of police brutality and in a ‘double standard’ of justice and protection - one for Negroes and one for whites.” Among its recommendations for what can be done to prevent it from happening again, it stated, “The Commission condemns moves to equip police departments with mass destruction weapons, such as automatic rifles, machine guns, and tanks. And the fact is that many police do reflect and express these white attitudes. To some Negroes police have come to symbolize white power, white racism, and white repression. It also identified the role police officers have played in these “racial disorders,” declaring: “The police are not merely a ‘spark’ factor. The report discussed the critical role poverty - caused by segregation and lack of access to adequate housing, education, and employment opportunities - played in the riots. But once the Kerner Commission’s report was released on February 29, 1968, it became apparent that its findings weren’t in alignment with what the president likely wanted to hear. As scholars of American history have pointed out, establishing this commission allowed LBJ to demonstrate leadership without committing to any concrete action to improve the lives of Black Americans. Both had been critical of the Black power movement. Of those members, only two were Black: NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins and Republican Massachusetts state senator Edward Brooke. The commission’s 11 members included three Republican government officials, Atlanta’s chief of police, business and labor representatives, and three Democratic government officials, including Illinois governor Otto Kerner, who served as the chairman of the commission, and whose name became synonymous with the report. LBJ wanted the commission to answer the following questions: What happened? Why did it happen? And what can be done to prevent it from happening again? Known as the Kerner Commission, this bipartisan body was created to evaluate the cause of that time period’s consistent racial “disorders,” also referred to as “riots.” In its report, published in 1968, the commission identified more than 150 riots that had taken place between 19, paying particular attention to some that had taken place during the summer of 1967: Tampa, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and Newark, New Jersey, in June, and Detroit in July. ![]()
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