[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 41 (Thursday, March 8, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E281-E282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL: RACISM AND POVERTY 50 YEARS AFTER THE KERNER 
                                 REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 5, 2018

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Evans for anchoring 
this very important Special Order on the subject of the famous Kerner 
Commission Report and the persistence of economic inequality and 
poverty in America.
  Together, we stand, firmly committed to combating poverty.
  Poverty in America reaches into all regions of the country, urban and 
rural, and affects millions of persons of all races, ethnicities, 
creed, ages, and gender.
  However, it seems that far too often, and for far too long, the 
African American community has been disproportionately disadvantaged.
  Three years ago we marked the 50th anniversary of the Watts Rebellion 
in Los Angeles, which was followed in the succeeding two years by the 
long hot summers and outbreaks of civil unrest in Detroit, Newark, 
Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and Gary, Indiana.
  The 1967 civil unrest and disturbances in Detroit and Newark prompted 
President Lyndon Johnson to establish the National Advisory Commission 
on Civil Disorders, an 11-member commission, chaired by Illinois 
Governor Otto Kerner.
  The mandate of the Kerner Commission was to identify the underlying 
cause of the civil unrest in communities across the country.
  On February 29, 1968, following several field trips to troubled 
communities, the Commission released its 176-page report that examined 
cultural and institutional racism, from segregated schools and housing 
discrimination to generational poverty and limited economic 
opportunity.
  The Kerner Report brought attention to the racial tension and divide 
that communities of color were facing nationwide.
  It is important to recall two of the more important conclusions of 
the Kerner Report.
  First, the Commission concluded that:
  ``Discrimination and segregation have long permeated much of American 
life; they now threaten the future of every American. This deepening 
racial division is not inevitable. The movement apart can be reversed. 
Choice is still possible. Our principal task is to define that choice 
and to press for a national resolution. To pursue our present course 
will involve the continuing polarization of the American community and, 
ultimately, the destruction of basic democratic values.''
  Second, the Commission concluded that:
  ``No American--white or black--can escape the consequences of the 
continuing social and economic decay of our major cities. Only a 
commitment to national action on an unprecedented scale can shape a 
future compatible with the historic ideals of American society.''
  The Kerner Commission called for bold policies to counter decades of 
political failure, such as investment in much-needed social services, 
housing, and education programs and incentivizing diversity among law 
enforcement.
  In the wake of the upheaval, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 outlawing 
housing discrimination was signed into law.
  Consequently, the past 50 years have seen the most progress towards 
equality than any point in our nation's history.
  Over the last five decades, African Americans have seen substantial 
gains in high school completion rates.
  High school graduation rates are up to 92.3 percent.
  College graduation rates have also improved for African Americans.
  Among 25-29-year-olds, less than one in 10 (9.1 percent) had a 
college degree in 1968, a figure that has climbed to almost one in four 
(22.8 percent) today.
  Over the same period, however, college completion expanded for whites 
at a similar pace, rising from 16.2 percent in 1968 to 42.1 percent 
today, leaving the relative situation of African Americans basically 
unchanged: in 1968 African Americans were just over half (56.0 percent) 
as likely as whites to have a college degree, a situation that is 
essentially the same today (54.2 percent).
  America has made some improvements, but African Americans continue to 
face some of the same obstacles identified in the Kerner Report.
  The unemployment rate for African Americans in 2017 (the last full 
year of data) was

[[Page E282]]

7.5 percent, 0.8 percentage points higher than it was in 1968 (6.7 
percent).
  The unemployment rate for whites was 3.8 percent in 2017 and 3.2 
percent in 1968.
  The unemployment data for these two years, almost 50 years apart, 
demonstrate a longstanding and unfortunate economic regularity: the 
unemployment rate for black workers is consistently about twice as high 
as it is for white workers.
  Today, hourly wage black workers who could get jobs still only made 
82.5 cents on every dollar earned by the typical white worker.
  In, 1968, black infants were about 1.9 times as likely to die as 
white infants; today, the infant mortality rate is 2.3 times higher for 
African Americans.
  On average, an African American born today can still expect to live 
about 3.5 fewer years than a white person born on the same day.
  In 1968, African Americans were about 5.4 times as likely as whites 
to be in prison or jail; compared to today, African Americans are 6.4 
times as likely as whites to be incarcerated, which is especially 
troubling given that whites are also much more likely to be 
incarcerated now than they were in 1968.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear the inequalities and disparities that 
ignited hundreds of American cities in the 1960s still exist and have 
not been eliminated over the last half-century.
  Fifty years ago, the Kerner Commission proposed bold recommendations 
to address the issues of poverty and racism that plague the African-
American community, including:
  Investmnts in housing programs to combat de facto segregation in 
communities;
  Investments in K-12 and higher education to provide equal access to 
quality education;
  Investments in job training programs to ensure equal employment 
opportunities.
  Unfortunately, those recommendations have not been fully heeded over 
the past half-century.
  The time has come for Congress to rededicate itself to making bold 
investments necessary to eliminate economic inequality of opportunity 
in every corner of our great nation.
  If these investments are not made, our nation will remain separate 
and unequal for another 50 years.
  I urge my colleagues in Congress, and all Americans, to look at what 
unites us rather than what divides us.
  We are linked by our compassion, and bound by the fundamental edict 
of the American Dream that says we will strive to provide our children 
with a better life than we had.
  We can, and we must, find the common ground necessary to make this 
dream a reality for Americans of every race and creed, nationality and 
religion, gender and sexual orientation; indeed for every American 
wherever he or she may live in this great land regardless of what he or 
she looks like or who they may love.

                          ____________________