Twenty Years after Kerner: The Cleveland Case

ABSTRACT:

Twenty-one years after the Kerner Commission published its report warning of a drift toward two “separate but unequal” societies, racial discrimination and segregation persist in Cleveland and most American cities. Using Cleveland as a case study, the author details the problems of black poverty, welfare, dependency, and family disintegration. Two decades ago one could optimistically believe these problems would disappear with the passage of the civil rights legislation. That has not come to pass. Although many better educated blacks have become respected members of the middle class, the well-being of other blacks has deteriorated. The author suggests policies for treating the most distressed people and neighborhoods.