Kerner Commission Report Identifying White Racism as Riot Cause Rejected by LBJ and Ignored Sparking Law-and-Order Backlash

The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (Kerner Commission), chaired by Illinois Governor Otto Kerner Jr., releases its report on the causes of the 1967 urban riots that killed 43 in Detroit, 26 in Newark, and caused casualties in 23 other cities. The Commission’s central finding …