[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 42 (Friday, March 9, 2018)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E289]
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. JOYCE BEATTY

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 5, 2018

  Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, 1968 was a watershed year in our nation's 
history. That year saw the deadliest period of the Vietnam War and the 
peak of protests against that conflict. It saw the passage of the Fair 
Housing Act but the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and 
Robert F. Kennedy. 1968 saw President Johnson announce that he would 
not run for a second term and Richard Nixon elected to succeed him.
  In the midst of that tumultuous year, the National Advisory 
Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission, issued 
its report examining the cause of riots and unrest that had occurred in 
inner cities and communities of color around the country.
  After visiting those cities, interviewing witnesses, and consulting 
with experts, the Kerner Commission submitted its findings to President 
Johnson. That groundbreaking report remains important five decades 
later, not only as an historical document, but also because it 
describes the same issues of race that we struggle with today and how 
we can overcome them.
  The Kerner Commission's report identified twelve grievances that were 
shared in the communities of color where the unrest had taken place. 
Among these were lack of economic opportunity, discrimination in the 
administration of justice, and inadequacy of education, housing, and 
social welfare programs.
  These same problems persist today.
  Employment: In 2018, the unemployment rate for African-Americans is 
7.7 percent, compared to just 4.1 percent overall, and black workers 
made 83 cents on the dollar compared to white workers.
  Housing: only 41 percent of black households own their home, 
virtually the same as 1968, while over 70 percent of white families own 
their homes.
  Education: schools are more segregated now than they were thirty 
years ago, and blacks are half as likely as whites to have a college 
degree.
  Justice: blacks are incarcerated at a rate of 3.5 times higher than 
whites.
  So we now find ourselves in the same situation as the one described 
in the Kerner report 50 years ago: ``Our nation is moving toward two 
societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal.''
  Fortunately, the Kerner report also described a path to reverse the 
trend of racial division. It called for ``the realization of common 
opportunities for all within a single society'' that requires ``a 
commitment to national action--compassionate, massive and sustained, 
backed by the resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on 
this earth. From every American it will require new attitudes, new 
understanding, and, above all, new will.''
  Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand with my colleagues of the 
Congressional Black Caucus who embody the commitment to national action 
and the new will that the Kerner Commission called for 50 years ago.

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