Report: Inequality remains 50 years after Kerner Report

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.
Barriers to equality are posing threats to democracy in the U.S. as the country remains segregated along racial lines and child poverty worsens, says a study examining the nation 50 years after the release of the landmark 1968 Kerner Report.

The new report released Tuesday blames U.S. policymakers and elected officials, saying they're not doing enough to heed the warning on deepening poverty and inequality as highlighted by the Kerner Commission a half-century ago, and it lists a number of areas where the country has seen "a lack of or reversal of progress."

"Racial and ethnic inequality is growing worse. We're resegregating our housing and schools again," former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma, a co-editor of the new report and last surviving member of the original Kerner Commission created by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967. "There are few more people who are poor now than was true 50 years ago. Inequality of income is worse."

The new study titled "Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years After the Kerner Report" says the percentage of people living in deep poverty — less than half of the federal poverty level — has increased since 1975. About 46 percent of people living in poverty in 2016 were classified as living in deep poverty — 16 percentage points higher than in 1975.


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In this July 15, 1967, file photo, a National Guard officer passes the smashed window of a black-owned flower shop in riot-torn Newark, N.J., after a night of looting and violence. The small sign in window reads, "Please!! Negro-Owned Business." Former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, says he remains haunted that the panel's recommendations on U.S. race relations and poverty were never adopted, but he is hopeful they will be one day. He strongly feels that poverty and structural racism still enflame racial tensions even as the United States becomes more diverse. (AP Photo, File)