Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years after the Kerner Report: Investing in America Fifty Years after the Kerner Report

by Fred Harris (Editor), Alan Curtis (Editor)

Overview

In 1968, the Kerner Commission concluded that America was heading toward “two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” Today, America’s communities are experiencing increasing racial tensions and inequality, working-class resentment over the unfulfilled American Dream, white supremacy violence, toxic inaction in Washington, and the decline of the nation’s example around the world.

In Healing Our Divided Society, Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, along with Eisenhower Foundation CEO Alan Curtis, re-examine fifty years later the work still necessary towards the goals set forth in The Kerner Report. This timely volume unites the interests of minorities and white working- and middle-class Americans to propose a strategy to reduce poverty, inequality, and racial injustice. Reflecting on America’s urban climate today, this new report sets forth evidence-based policies concerning employment, education, housing, neighborhood development, and criminal justice based on what has been proven to work—and not work. 

Contributors include: Oscar Perry Abello, Elijah Anderson, Anil N.F. Aranha, Jared Bernstein, Henry G. Cisneros, Elliott Currie, Linda Darling-Hammond, Martha F. Davis, E. J. Dionne, Jr., Marian Wright Edelman, Delbert S. Elliott, Carol Emig, Jeff Faux, Ron Grzywinski, Michael P. Jeffries, Lamar K. Johnson, Celinda Lake, Marilyn Melkonian, Gary Orfield, Diane Ravitch, Laurie Robinson, Herbert C. Smitherman, Jr., Joseph Stiglitz, Dorothy Stoneman, Kevin  Washburn, Valerie Wilson, Gary Younge,  Julian E. Zelizer, and the editors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439916032
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2018
Edition description:	1, An Eisenhower Foundation Book
Pages:	446
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Fred Harris is a former U. S. Senator, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of New Mexico, and the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission. He is the author of The New Populism and co-editor of Quiet Riots: Race and Poverty in the United States: The Kerner Report Twenty Years Later.  Alan Curtis is President and CEO of The Eisenhower Foundation. He was Executive Director of President Jimmy Carter’s Urban Policy Group and is editor of American Violence and Public Policy and Patriotism, Democracy, and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad. He is replicating the Quantum Opportunities model that graduates at-risk youth from high school in low-income communities.

Table of Contents

About the Eisenhower Foundation xi

Introduction and the History of the Kerner Report 1

Part I Evidence-Based Policy

1 Policy That Works 11

2 Economic and Employment Policy 14

3 Education Policy 38

4 Housing and Neighborhood Investment Policy 59

5 Criminal Justice Policy and Mass Incarceration 76

6 Domestic Reform, Global Impact 95

7 Financing Reform 98

8 New Will 100

Part II Perspectives from the Fiftieth-Anniversary National Advisory Council

Economic and Employment Policy

1 Economic Justice: Fifty Years after the Kerner Report Joseph E. Stiglitz 127

2 The Policy Agenda to Address Racial Injustice Jared Bernstein 139

3 The Case for Solidarity Jeff Faux 157

4 The Power of Love Coupled with Opportunity Dorothy Stoneman 165

5 Fifty Years since the 1967 Rebellion, Have Health and Health Care Services Improved? Herbert C. Smitherman, Jr. Lamar K. Johnson Anil N. F. Aranha 178

Education Policy

6 Education and the Path to One Nation, Indivisible Linda Darling-Hammond 193

7 Education: Racial and Social Justice Diane Ravitch 208

8 Kerner and Kids: Work Remains Carol Emig 217

9 Still Struggling to Change the Odds for America's Poor Children and Children of Color Marian Wright Edelman 227

10 A New Civil Rights Agenda Gary Orfield 238

Housing and Neighborhood Investment Policy

11 Housing: A National Anthem Oscar Perry Abello Ron Grzywinski Marilyn Melkonian 251

12 Race Relations since the Ghetto Riots of the 1960s Elijah Anderson 263

Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Policy

13 Evidence-Based Programs, Policies, and Practices Delbert S. Elliott 275

14 Policing in the United States: From the Kerner Legacy Looking Forward Laurie O. Robinson 290

15 Race, Violence, and Criminal Justice Elliott Currie 301

Equality and Inclusion

16 Suffering and Citizenship: Racism and Black Life Michael P. Jeffries 313

17 New Dimensions of Equity: The Experience of American Latinos Henry G. Cisneros 322

18 Everybody Does Better in Indian Country When Tribes Are Empowered Kevin K. Washburn 334

19 We Must Do Better: Fifty Years of Fitful Progress for Women Martha F. Davis 342

New Will and the Media

20 Messaging Strategy Needed to Combat Inequality Today Celinda Lake 353

21 The Kerner Commission and the Challenge of Politics: The "New Ethnicity," Class, and Racial Justice E. J. Dionne, Jr. 363

22 The Media and Race Relations Julian E. Zelizer 374

23 Sometimes, "Dog Bites Man" Really Is the Story Gary Younge 384

Acknowledgments 393

Notes 395

Contributors 451

Index 459