The 1960s report that warned the USA was racist

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

In the summer of 1967 more than 100 cities in America were caught up in riots. US Senator Fred Harris urged the President, Lyndon B Johnson, to investigate the causes. He set up the Kerner Commission and appointed Fred Harris as one of 11 members to find out why America was burning. The final report shocked many Americans when it blamed white racism for creating and sustaining black ghettos. It said the US was dividing into two separate and unequal societies - one black and one white. Claire Bowes has been speaking to former US Senator Fred Harris.

Photo: Members of the Kerner Commission giving final approval to the panel's report on 28th February 1968. Senator Fred R. Harris, (D-Okla.) third from left. Credit: Bettmann/Getty

Transcript

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0:00.0	Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless
0:06.8	searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the
0:11.8	telly we share what we've been watching
0:14.0	Cladie Aide.
0:16.0	Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming.
0:19.0	Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige.
0:21.0	And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less
0:24.9	searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds.
0:29.2	Hello and thanks for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with
0:38.6	me Claire Bose. Today I'm taking you back to the 1960s and a radical government report which accused
0:45.5	white America of racism.
0:48.2	The Kerner Commission, set up after a summer of protests by African Americans in 1967, said the US was dividing into two separate
0:57.3	and unequal societies, one black and one white.
1:01.7	I've been speaking to the only surviving member of the
1:04.7	Kerner Commission, former US Senator Fred Harris.
1:11.0	The shots are coming fast and heavy now here in Detroit as the night is again broken by gunfire.
1:17.0	From city after city in this tragic summer of 1967 has come news of violence across America, rioting, looting,
1:27.0	burning, sniping, killing.
1:30.0	The riots and disorders were really frightening.
1:33.0	There was a lot of needless deaths.
1:36.1	Most of those who died were black,
1:38.8	and most of them were innocent of any wrongdoing.
	...

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