Reassessing the Kerner Commission and Government Policies that Impact Racial Isolation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: School Demographics and Social Opportunity

Abstract

In 1968 the Kerner Commission report warned, “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white--separate and unequal” (p.1). In the decades since the Commission cited segregation and economic disparities that were at the root of the urban unrest that occurred throughout the nation in 1967, the United States still faces persistent patterns of segregation by race and class. This study focuses on: 1) assessing the prediction the Kerner Commission made that the United States is moving towards two societies, separate and unequal, in terms of access to educational opportunity; and 2) what the role of government policies have been in separate and unequal education by comparing the trajectories of de jure and de facto segregated states.

Authors

• Kendra Taylor, The Pennsylvania State University

• Erica Frankenberg, The Pennsylvania State University