"Recognizing that an historic study of American racism and police violence should become part of today's canon, Jelani Cobb contextualizes it for a new generation. The Kerner Commission Report, released a month before Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1968 assassination, is among a handful of government reports that reads like an illuminating history book-a dramatic, often shocking, exploration of systemic racism that transcends its time. Yet Columbia University professor and New Yorker correspondent Jelani Cobb argues that this prescient report, which examined more than a dozen urban uprisings between 1964 and 1967, has been woefully neglected. In an enlightening new introduction, Cobb reveals how these uprisings were used as political fodder by Republicans and demonstrates that this condensed edition of the Report should be essential reading at a moment when protest movements are challenging us to uproot racial injustice. A detailed examination of economic inequality, race, and policing, the Report has never been more relevant, and demonstrates to devastating effect that it is possible for us to be entirely cognizant of history and still tragically repeat it"-- Provided by publisher.

Introduction / by Jelani Cobb -- The Essential Kerner Commission Report: Part I. What Happened?: Chapter 1. Profiles of Disorder ; Chapter 2. Patterns of Disroder -- Part II. Why Did it Happen?: Chapter 4. The Basic Causes ; Chapter 6. The Formation of Racial Ghettos ; Chapter 7. Unemployment, Family Structure and Social Disorganization ; Chapter 8. Conditions of Life in the Racial Ghetto -- Part III. What Can be Done?: Chapter 11. Police the Community ; Chapter 12. Control of Disorder ; Chapter 15. The News Media and the Disorders ; Chapter 17. Recommendations for National Action -- Conclusion -- Appendix: Frequently asked questions.