1870: Hiram Revels Becomes First Black U.S. Senator February 29,
1968 Kerner Commission Documents a Divided Society After six
months of study into race riots in American cities, the Kerner
Commission issued its findings on this date in 1968. A number of
cities, including Los Angeles, Detroit and Newark, were torn by
race riots during the summers of 1965-67. President Lyndon
Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil
Disorders to investigate the causes of the unrest. The
commission took its name from its chairman, Ohio Gov. Otto
Kerner. The commission said black Americans faced many problems
in addition to open discrimination, documenting a need for
education, jobs and housing. The commission warned that the
United States was "moving toward two societies, one black, one
white - separate and unequal." With the election of Richard
Nixon and a more conservative Congress in 1968, few of the
Kerner commissions recommendations were carried out.
*DISCLAIMER*: The information contained in or provided