Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

The Endless Long Hot Summer: A Study Of Urban Riots And The Kerner Report, Taylor Anderson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders’ (Kerner Commission) investigation from 1967 to 1968 of the urban violence that occurred throughout the late 1960s in the United States. The study focuses on the process by which the Kerner Commission’s research and investigation became the conclusions and recommendations found in the Final Report they produced. For purposes of analysis, three sections of the commission’s research and findings were examined—the relationships between urban violence and racism, the police and minorities, and the press and urban violence. The commission’s methodology was a combination of investigative fieldwork that included interviews and …