Documentary ponders inquiry into events that shook the nation — and Detroit — in 1967
Julie HindsRecalling a debate between Kerner Commission members, former Sen. Fred Harris says the vote to approve the use of the word “racism” in a key chapter of their ultimate report was a close 6-5.
Some members preferred a gentler term like “intolerance” or “discrimination,” according to Harris, who didn't want to soften the language. He thought it was important to make white Americans think about the commission’s conclusions, not lessen their discomfort.
“We also wanted to say, to young Black people particularly: ‘You’re not crazy. There is systematic racism that you’re a victim of,’” says Harris in the new documentary screening Saturday and Sunday at the Freep Film Festival and airing May 21 on the PBS series “American Experience.”
“The Riot Report” covers the violence that erupted in Black neighborhoods in 1967 in numerous U.S. cities, including Detroit, and the attempt of a commission appointed that same year by President Lyndon B. Johnson to understand why it happened and how to prevent it from recurring.
Nearly 60 years later, the Kerner Commission’s finding are still as relevant today as they were then, says Jelani Cobb, dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
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In today’s divided America, it’s difficult to imagine figures from both major political parties reaching a consensus that white racism is a huge problem that needs to be addressed. But that's exactly what happened with the Kerner Commission report, which ultimately was unanimously approved by both the commission's liberal and conservative members.
As Harris says in the film, “We thought if we can’t come together, there’s no hope the country can.”
Directed and produced by Michelle Ferrari and written by Ferrari and Cobb, “The Riot Report” tells the inside story of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, the official name of what’s better known as the Kerner Commission. The 11-member panel was tasked by LBJ with the mission of getting to the root causes of the rebellions that roiled the nation and finding what could be done to stop them from happening again.
The group included members of Congress, a police chief, the founder of a defense contractor and the head of the United Steel Workers union. Only two appointees were Black: Republican Sen. Edward Brooke of Massachusetts and NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins.
Creating such commissions were often a way for White House administrations to signal they cared about an issue without really tackling it. This one would be bolder than anyone expected.
Ferrari, a filmmaker and longtime contributor to “American Experience,” says she became interested in making a film about the Kerner Commission after reading the 2018 book “Separate and Unequal” by historian Steven M. Gillon, which got its title from the commission’s grave conclusion that “our nation is moving toward two societies, one black and one white – separate and unequal.”
A number of events — the murder of George Floyd and the spotlight it put on police brutality and efforts to limit or ban Black history as a subject in public schools among them — increased the urgency of telling the commission’s story through a documentary.
“Right around the time I started pitching the film to ‘American Experience,’ there was this … controversy over CRT (critical race theory) and the way we teach history," says Ferrari. "It just really felt to me like … the story of the Kerner Commission had something pretty vital to say to the present.”
The commission was driven by the commitment of two of its members, Harris, a Democrat, and New York Mayor John Lindsay, then a Republican, who both sought to get to the heart of the matter and not just rely on familiar establishment voices for their research.
Urged on by Harris and Lindsay, the investigation sought out information and opinions from a variety of perspectives. Members like Harris traveled to places like Milwaukee in order to to walk through Black neighborhoods and conduct interviews with barbers, housewives and community activists — people who lived there during the disturbances and didn't just watch them from a safe distance on TV.
The vivid recollections of Harris, who’s now 93, are invaluable to the documentary, says Ferrari. “His recall was just unbelievably impressive. I would say that the film wouldn’t exist without him.”
As Harris explains, the commission members (especially those who came into the role stressing law and order above all else) began to better comprehend the frustrations of Black communities that had experienced discrimination.
The commission found that the facts didn't support the theory that violence was sparked by outside agitators with a communist agenda, as then-FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover claimed. But they did indicate that the overreaction of the police and National Guard helped make already tense situations worse.
When the Kerner Commission's conclusions finally were published in 1968, it shocked white society by openly saying that white racism was the cause of the previous year’s civil unrest. The report got an unfriendly reception from Johnson, who refused to accept a copy or publicly thank the commissioners. Consumed by the Vietnam War and the student protests against him, LBJ viewed the report as another problem to deal with at a time when he was so beleaguered that he decided not to run for a second term.
Ultimately, the Kerner Commission's report didn’t lead to the massive changes it recommended to improve conditions for Black Americans. But it has stood the test of time as an example of how government can work when both sides come together and try to achieve shared goals.
At least when the Kerner Commission existed, says Ferrari “we could still talk to one another. Our minds could be changed. And that I found really, really moving in the story.”
The commission's riot report didn’t solve the problems it addressed. But according to Ferrari, it still provides “a blueprint for beginning to talk about these issues in a more constructive way, as opposed to banning the discussion of them in classrooms, and that’s really valuable.”
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.
Freep Film Festival
Through Sunday
Various venues
"The Riot Report" screens at 7 p.m. Sat. at the Birmingham 8 Powered By Emagine and 6 p.m. Sun. at the Michigan Science Center (Toyota Engineering). Tickets are $15 and available at the festival website. The film is also available for streaming in Michigan only.