REVERSING POVERTY, INEQUALITY, RACIAL INJUSTICE AND MASS INCARCERATION

 

Policy That Works

On The Fiftieth Anniversary

Of The 1968 Kerner Commission

 

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

Healing Our Divided Society

The George Washington University

Continental Ballroom

Marvin Center

800 21^st Street NW

Washington, DC  20052

 

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Education and the Path to One Nation

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Root Room

1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW

Washington, DC  20036

 

Fifty years ago, on March 1, 1968, the Kerner Commission, appointed by President Lyndon Johnson,

issued an influential report on the painful racial fissures, poverty and inequality that divided the nation in 1968.  That tragic year was characterized by violent protests in cities and the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.  The Commission concluded, “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, on white – separate and unequal.”

On February 27 and 28, the findings from the Eisenhower Foundation’s 50-year update of the commission report will be released at two Washington, D.C. events.  The report, Healing Our Divided Society:  Investing in America Fifty Years After the Kerner Report, will be published on February 27 by Temple University Press.  (See: http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2495_reg.html.)

The two Washington, DC forums will examine increases in child poverty, deep poverty, income and wealth inequality, mass incarceration and racial injustice since 1968.  Building on the emerging evidence based policy movement, the forums will set forth a new national policy for poor, working class and middle class Americans minority and white – that scales up what works, discards what doesn’t

work, creates soft power internationally and facilitates reform through the generation of “new will” among Americans, as recommended by the Kerner Commission 50 years ago.

We invite you to attend these two special events with some of our nation’s leading policymakers, journalists, researchers, activists, and educators.  Join us on Tuesday, February 27, for a day-long forum on what works and new will and on Wednesday, February 28, for a half-day forum that takes a deep dive into civil rights in education.

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President and Senior Lecturer, Repairers of the Breach
Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; former Chief Economist and Economic Advisor to the Vice President
Alan Curtis, President, The Eisenhower Foundation; former Executive Director, White House Urban Policy Group
Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University; President, Learning Policy Institute
E.J. Dionne, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institute; Columnist, Washington Post
Jeff Faux, Founding President and Distinguished Fellow, Economic Policy Institute
Michael Feuer, Dean, Graduate School of Education, George Washington University
Fred Harris, Member, 1968 Kerner Commission; former United States Senator, Oklahoma
Michael Jeffries, Associate Professor of American Studies, Wellesley College
Celinda Lake, President, Lake Research Partners
Catherine Lhamon, Chair, United States Commission on Civil Rights

Marc Mauer, Executive Director, Sentencing Project
Diane Ravitch, Professor, New York University; Founder and President, Network for Public Education; former United States Assistant Secretary of Education
Laurie Robinson, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University; former United States Assistant Attorney General
Herbert Smitherman, Vice Dean of Diversity and Community Affairs, School of Medicine, Wayne State University   
Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics; University Professor, Columbia University; former Chairman, President’s Council of Economic Advisors
Dorothy Stoneman, Founder, YouthBuild USA
Julian Zelizer, Professor, Princeton University; CNN Political Analyst

Zakiyah Ansari, Advocacy Director, Alliance for Quality Education
Linda Darling-Hammond, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University; President, Learning Policy Institute
Patricia Gándara, Professor, University of California, Los Angeles; Co-Director, Civil Rights Project
Anne Holton, Visiting Professor, George Mason University; former Virginia Secretary of Education
John B. King Jr., Chief Executive Officer, The Education Trust; former United States Secretary of Education
Kent McGuire, Program Director of Education, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; former President, Southern Education Foundation
Gary Orfield, Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles; Co-Director, Civil Rights Project
Claudio Sanchez, Reporter, National Public Radio (NPR)
Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress and Action Fund