The Economic Policy Institute is proud to co-sponsor the upcoming Kerner Commission at 50 Conference, hosted jointly at The Johns Hopkins University and UC Berkeley’s Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society. The conference will be February 27-March 1, 2018 to commemorate the Kerner Commission and the contemporary significance of its report.
A half century on from the publication of the Presidential Kerner Commission Report on Civil Disorders—which found systemic inequality and racial discrimination to be at the root of U.S. urban unrest—we find ourselves in the midst of a re-awakened awareness on the extent of segregation, inequity, and police brutality in our society, the same issues examined and explored by the Commission.
The aim of the conference is to envision what a contemporary Kerner Commission might find today and build a wide-ranging policy roadmap to tackle these issues for the next 50 years. With leading scholars, advocates and professionals in relevant fields and disciplines, this conference is a comprehensive investigation of racial inequality in American society.
Speakers will include:
- Shaun Donovan, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- Ronald J. Daniels, President of The Johns Hopkins University
- Fred Harris, former U.S. Senator and the only surviving member of the 9-member Kerner Commission
- Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
- Thea Lee, President of the Economic Policy Institute
- Richard Rothstein, Senior Fellow at the Haas Institute, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute
- Leana S. Wen, Commissioner of Health for the City of Baltimore.
For a full list of speakers, click here.
Who: More than two dozen relevant experts, scholars, and ex-members of the Kerner Commission
What: Three-day conference exploring race, segregation, and inequality
Where: UC Berkeley (main); The Johns Hopkins University (satellite)
When: Feb. 27-March 1, 2018 (Berkley); Feb 28-March 1, 2018 (Baltimore)
Click here to register for the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore location and here to register for the conference at UC Berkeley.