Analyze quantitative data provided by the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, better known as the Kerner Commission. Although it is challenging to make comparisons over 50 years, and the 1960s report oversimplified society by establishing groups such as “White” and “Non-White,” as a historian-in-training, you are likely asking, “Where do we stand as a society today?
Politically, African Americans have made substantial strides in the post-Civil Rights era, but during the same period, African Americans both individually and as a community have suffered disproportionately with poverty, high unemployment, access to education and healthcare, and disproportionate levels of incarceration. These trends persist today.
Using the Economic Policy Institute’s 50 Years After the Kerner Report, trend-spot and consider how the years between 1968 and 2008 were formative ones. Determine which, in your scholarly opinion, are the most critical areas and data points from the original 1968 report of systemic obstacles to equal opportunity and equal justice. What have been the impacts of this?
• What data points struck you as most or least surprising and why?
• Which of the instances of systemic obstacles to equal opportunity and justice do you think were most firmly rooted in history?
• What areas did you identify as potentially missing or misrepresented by the report?
• How do conditions compare between 1968 and now?
• What accounts for the differences between 1968 and the updated report?
• Do you think there are even more recent changes or statistics you would like to share?
