When Black neighborhoods in scores of cities erupted inviolence during the summer of 1967, President Lyndon Johnsonappointed the National Advisory Commission on CivilDisorders––informally known as the KernerCommission––to answer three questions: What happened? Whydid it happen? And what could be done to prevent it fromhappening again? The bi-partisan commission's final report,issued in March of 1968, would offer a shockingly unvarnishedassessment of American race relations––a verdict sopolitically explosive that Johnson not only refused toacknowledge it publicly, but even to thank the commissionersfor their service. The Riot Report explores this pivotal momentin the nation's history and the fraught social dynamics thatsimultaneously spurred the commission's investigation anddoomed its findings to political oblivion.
