Race, Rebellion and Reporting: The Kerner Commission at 50

I. INTRODUCTION

“Chief Blame for Riots Put on White Racism,” read the first first published headline 50 years ago today about the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and suggests why the story was largely the result of a leak and the study itself largely ignored by the man who initially called it into being.  Despite being his desire less than a year earlier, first looks at the commission’s publication had president Lyndon Baines Johnson shook to his political core and had he had his way the report would have never been seen or heard from at all.