Prophecy? Poverty can’t win against 2 Goliaths

I received an email in late November asking me to attend a discussion on the 50th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report on poverty and meet with Alan Curtis, president of the Milton S. Eisenhower Foundation, which tracks the commission’s progress.

I had no idea what the Kerner Commission was — or who Curtis was — so I did what most people do these days: I Googled it, because during the last four years, I have made race, poverty, violence and crime the staples of my weekly Sunday column. And so it is that my end-of-theyear column will continue to take a look at these very serious issues. I find with each column, I learn a little more about social ills — but I understand the whys a whole lot less.

I learned the Eisenhower Foundation was the private continuation of two commissions by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson: the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders and the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence.

Johnson ordered the formation of the commissions after riots began sweeping across urban black neighborhoods in cities such as Newark, Detroit and Los Angeles during the 1960s.

The riots left dozens of people dead and thousands more injured. Rioters ransacked property, burned and destroyed businesses and devastated communities that took decades to rebound. All of the ugliness was caught on the latest medium: television.

The commissions were tasked with finding out why the riots happened and what could be done to prevent them from happening again.

At the time, the common political belief was the riots were driven by outside agitators and young black men full of anger and hate.

But the release of the Kerner Commission’s report unmasked the reality, dismaying the president and politicians and shook the nation at large when it found “white racism” created the problems.

The report cited “bad policing practices, a flawed justice system, unscrupulous consumer credit practices, poor or inadequate housing, high unemployment and voter suppression” among other problematic issues that were stirring up hate and violence.

The report stated racial discrimination limited African-Americans’ “ability to escape from poverty,” ... “converged on the young to destroy opportunity and enforce failure” and “white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it.”

It concluded these problems were causing America to move “toward two societies.”

To keep what the report deemed as democracy from further eroding, the Kerner Commission called for $20 billion in 1968 dollars to be spent annually on new investments in jobs, training and education. That was 50 years ago.

So, it was curiosity that drove me to attend a 50th year update on the commission’s findings at a Dec. 13 luncheon held, ironically, at Mory’s — a private club adjoining the campus of Yale University that at one time catered to Yale’s elite students and alumni, where black male servants with white cloths draped over their arms indulged every whim.

There among the sepia-toned photos of the Bushes and other famous alumni hanging on the walls, Yale Professor Eli Anderson and Curtis spoke about the progress and lack of progress since the report came out.

Before the discussion, we

watched a 1993 report on the 25th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s findings by CBS’ Charles Kuralt.

What stunned those of us watching was if we closed our eyes, it was like listening to what is currently being reported on the evening news. And we learned while the lives of many blacks and other minorities have greatly improved, poverty and lack of opportunity still reigns supreme among that faction of Americans.

The only real difference between poverty in the 1960s and now, is there are more whites grappling with it than ever before — and that has helped fuel animosity toward minorities who have become successful, Curtis said.

Fifty years ago, the Kerner Commission sent the White House and Congress a warning that massive government spending was needed to improve the landscape for minorities and other poor people or the consequences would be dire.

But the Johnson administration refused to shift funding from the Vietnam War to social reform and Congress would not agree to the necessary tax increases to get it done, according to Smithsonian.com.

Instead, the Goliath we call the American government threw a lasso around poverty, roped it in and put it in a corral. And then created another Goliath that needed to be fed with salaries and pensions to deal with it.

Whether readers knew or have forgotten about the Kerner Commission, we sure know now the failure to act on its findings was a critical mistake because look at our inner-cities now — and not only the human cost but the financial cost well beyond $20 billion a year.

As we step into 2019, we have a fresh 365 days to bring new ideas and a new hope to old problems that can be fixed and truly lead to opportunity and the pursuit of happiness for all those willing to work to have it.

Because a country is only as good as the lives of its people and its people are only as good — or as bad — as the lives its government helps them lead.

In America, the good and the bad comes down to race, wealth and poverty — but most of all for those living in poverty, the weak back of political will.

Which means, on the 75th anniversary of the Kerner Commission’s report, nothing will really change.

Prophecy? Poverty can’t win against 2 Goliaths.