An Ounce of Prevention

The recent social upheaval in the wake of George Floyd’s death is reminiscent of the country’s turmoil in the late 1960s. In response to that social upheaval, President Lyndon Johnson charged what came to be known as the Kerner Commission with investigating the riots’ causes across 20 major American cities and recommending what could be done to prevent their reoccurrence. Among the most prominently mentioned causes of the riots was “inadequate recreation areas and facilities” in impoverished urban areas (National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, 1968, p. 104). In its recommendations, however, the Kerner Commission largely ignored the importance of recreation areas and facilities. Our commentary discusses why that was the case then, and why that should not be the case now.

Two Nations

The landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision outlawed public school segregation and was the catalyst for the nonviolent civil rights movement and some positive change for African Americans. However, in 1967, race riots broke out in largely African American urban districts across America, leading President Lyndon Johnson to form the Kerner Commission to determine the underlying causes of the riots. This paper explores the causes of the riots and the government’s response to them after the Kerner Commission’s findings, and then uses critical race theory as a theoretical framework to determine why institutional racism continues to be pervasive in society. The author focuses on three main areas: school desegregation; mass incarceration and police brutality; and sports, race, and activism to discuss the lack of progress between the Kerner Commission report and today.

Introduction to the Special Edition of the Review of Black Political Economy on Revisiting the Kerner Commission Report

Revisiting the work of the Kerner Commission after 50 years offers the opportunity to explore two unresolved research and policy issues. First, many of the racial disparities that promoted widespread disorder and violent protests in 1967-1968 remain today. Second, there is the embarrassment of not having any African American researchers on the technical staff examining the causes and consequences of racial disparities in economic outcomes. This special edition of the Review of Black Political Economy ( RBPE), with generous support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, explores these two themes.

African Americans in Economics at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor Since the Kerner Commission Report of 1968

The campus of the University of Michigan experienced student unrest of the 1960s surrounding the Vietnam war and demands for racial inclusion. How the university, particularly the Department of Economics, responded in the aftermath of the Kerner Commission Report is the focus of this article. Michigan is not unique in producing few Black PhD economists over its history, having graduated 15 Black PhD economists of the more than 1,100 who have graduated from the department to date. Supreme Court decisions and a state ballot initiative halted the progress that was being made by the University to improve student and faculty diversity. Despite this, Michigan is one of only a few economics departments at majority institutions to have been home to several Black economists simultaneously. The fact that this is a notable statistic speaks to the lack of diversity of economics faculties nationwide.

National Police Reform Commissions: Evidence-Based Practices or Unfulfilled Promises?

The Kerner Commission devoted significant attention to the issue of policing and its impact on communities of color in particular. In light of the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission, the focus of this article is twofold. First, this article provides a literature review on police commissions across time, both pre- and post-Kerner, to identify similarities. There are three key areas of focus that most of the police commissions have touched on: excessive police use of force, police–community relations, and personnel standards. Second, this article assesses the empirical evidence behind these three identified areas of concern and asks the following: What does the research show on the efficacy of police organizational reforms for reducing excessive police use of force, building police–community relations, and improving personnel standards? This article concludes by identifying areas for further research in each of these three subcategories. Specifically, this article highlights the need for further research to empirically delineate what strategies are effective for reducing police–community tensions.

The Kerner Commission Report: Did It Incentivize or Cause an Increase in the Production and Hiring of Black PhD Economists in Academia?

Approximately 50 years ago, the Kerner Commission Report cited pervasive racial discrimination in training, education, and employment as a contributor to Black–White inequality and stratification in the United States. This article considers if the Kerner Commission Report incentivized and possibly caused an increase in the production and hiring of Black PhD economists in academia. With longitudinal data on counts of economic doctorates earned by Black Americans employed in economics departments between 1957 and 2018, we estimate the parameters of count data specifications that accounts for the 1968 Kerner Commission Report dichotomously. Parameter estimates from mixed and fixed effect Poisson, negative binomial, and Poisson quantile specifications suggest that while the Kerner Commission Report generally had a positive effect on the number of Black American economics doctorates employed as faculty, it had no effect on the hiring of Black economists at the typical research institution and PhD-granting economics department. Our results suggest that similar to the Kerner Commission Report characterization of the United States being two separate racially stratified societies, approximately 50 years later research institutions and PhD-granting economics departments in the United States are similarly racially stratified.