Forty Year Update of the Kerner Riot Commission
The above photo is from Detroit, during the rebellion of 1967. In response to this and similar events across the nation, President Lyndon Johnson formed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders – the Kerner Riot Commission, named after its Chair, then Illinois Governor Otto Kerner. The Eisenhower Foundation is the private sector continuation of the Kerner Riot Commission (and the National Violence Commission).
The Foundation periodically updates the Kerner Riot Commission (and the National Violence Commission).
In February 2008, the Foundation released a forty year update of the Kerner Riot Commission. Click here to read the Executive Summary of the Foundation's preliminary findings, revised after the November 4, 2008 Presidential election. The complete report will be posted in the future.
The Foundation is holding hearings around the nation to receive testimony from citizens for the forty year Kerner update. In addition to the National Forum on Public Morality, held on October 24-25, 2005, and the National Media Forum: Media, Poverty, Race and Inequality, held on December 12, 2006, hearings were held in Detroit on November 17, 2007 and in Newark on December 1, 2007.
For the agenda, click here for Detroit, click here for Newark.
Click here for media coverage.
For the hearing transcripts and videos, click here for Detroit, click here for Newark, click here for the National Media Forum: Media, Poverty, Race and Inequality, click here for the National Forum on Public Morality.
More hearings are being held.
For the Foundation's twenty-five year update of the Kerner Commission (in 1993), click here.
For the Foundation's thirty year update of the Kerner Commission (in 1998), click here.
On October 3, 2008, Education & Opportunity: A forum on the Kerner Commission Forty Year Report was held at Stanford University, co-sponsored by the Stanford University School of Education, the Eisenhower Foundation, the Civil Rights Project, the Warren Institute, and the Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC/EPRU).
The Work That Remains:
A Forty-Year Update of the Kerner Commission Report
On November 13, 2008 the Eisenhower Foundation and the Economic Policy Institute held a forum on the Kerner 40th update and Economic Policy. Click here for more information about this important event.
On March 26, 2009 Eisenhower Foundation President and CEO Alan Curtis spoke to the City Club of Cleveland on the preliminary finding of the 40 Year Update of the Kerner Commission. Nearly 100 years old, the City Club has served as a forum where persons from a wide variety of political and social positions could meet to discuss ideas for "the improvement of the political, social and economic conditions of the entire community." Click here to see a video of Dr. Curtis' presentation.
The Obama Vision and the Kerner Commission
In his Inaugural Address on January 20, 2009, Barack Obama said, “The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small but whether it works….Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.”
On April 16, 2009 Eisenhower Foundation President Alan Curtis spoke before the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College, noting that it has long been the position of the Foundation that only programs that work should be supported, and that this is best demonstrated when proper evaluation of programs occurs. Click here to see a video of Dr. Curtis' presentation.