American Experience

The Riot Report

When Black neighborhoods in scores of American cities erupted in violence during the summer of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders - informally known as the Kerner Commission - to answer three questions: What happened? Why did it happen? And what could be done to prevent it from happening again? The commission's final report, issued in March of 1968, would offer a shockingly unvarnished assessment of American race relations - a verdict so politically explosive that Johnson refused to acknowledge it publicly or even thank the commissioners for their service. Featuring interviews with commission staffers and the last surviving commission member, Senator Fred Harris, The Riot Report explores a pivotal moment in our nation's history and the fraught social dynamics that simultaneously spurred the commission's investigation and doomed its findings to political oblivion.