American democracy is at an inflection point. Will we stride toward the 22nd century with evidence and will? Or will we lurch fearfully backwards, reinscribing the white supremist domination of the 19th century?
After hundreds of urban protests in the 1960s, the presidential Kerner Commission, composed mainly of privileged white men, concluded, “It is time to make good the promise of American democracy to all citizens—urban and rural, white and Black, Spanish surname, American Indian and every minority group.” Today it still is time—to reduce racial injustice, economic inequality, and poverty.
Since the Kerner Commission, there has been little or no progress in some areas, and in other ways things have gotten worse. Yet the visionaries on these pages are passionate about how the problem is not lack of resources, nor a dearth of knowledge on the economic, education, youth investment, criminal justice, public health, and housing policies that work. Rather, the problem is that America still does not have the “new will” the Kerner Commission concluded was needed to scale up what works.
How to create “new will?” We need to identify those who are thwarting majoritarian preferences. Use strengthened voter rights and new messaging techniques to advance Dr. King’s economic justice movement based on both class and race. Weave the middle class into the coalition. Know that perfect unity is not necessary for effective collaboration. Better expose the exploitation of Americans by the privileged and the rigged system with its big myth of market fundamentalism. Make clear how that exploitation is smoke-screened by cultural deniers. Build moral language and moral fusion coalitions to revive the heart of democracy and advance a Third Reconstruction. Recover a moral commitment to long-term struggle. Balance outraged intensity with bridge-building persuasion. Don’t just preach to the choir—but recognize that the choir is where, to use John Lewis’ phrase, good trouble starts. Strengthen the role of nonprofit organizations. Base action on evidence and science, not on ideology, supposition, disinformation, and misinformation. Advocate for how universities can better engage their communities. And create a Harry Belafonte-like infrastructure of hope and empathy through the visual arts, monuments, and the performing arts. Through this book, and through its companion volume—the republication of the original Kerner Report of 1968—we commit to enhancing the movement and healing our divided society.
Book Features:
- Brings together public and private sector decision-makers, seminal thinkers, activists, advocates, students, and commonsense change-oriented scholars to address a broad range of economic, education, youth investment, criminal justice, public health, and housing issues requiring urgent action.
- Cuts through campaign rhetoric to focus on evidence and science, not on ideology, supposition, disinformation, and misinformation.
- Examines what we have learned since the Kerner Commission and updates trends in economic, education, police reform, youth development, public health, and housing policies.
- Identifies what works and what doesn’t work.
- Offers core lessons and takeaways for creating new political will to reduce racial and economic injustice, inequality, and poverty.
Contributors:
William Barber
Director
Center for Public Theology and Public Policy
Yale University
Co-Chair
The Poor People’s Campaign
MacArthur Fellow
Jared Bernstein
Chair
White House Council of Economic Advisors
Cornell William Brooks
Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
LaTosha Brown
Co-Founder
Black Voters Matter Fund
Elliott Currie
Professor of Criminology, Law and Society
University of California, Irvine
Linda Darling-Hammond
President and CEO
Learning Policy Institute
Professor of Education Emeritus
Stanford University
Robert Faris
Senior Researcher
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Harvard University Law School
Michael Feuer
Dean
School of Education and Human Development
George Washington University
John Jackson
President and CEO
Schott Foundation for Public Education
Margaret Morton
Director
Program on Creativity and Free Expression
Ford Foundation
Janet Murguia
President and CEO
UnidosUS
Naomi Oreskes
Professor of the History of Science
Harvard University
Claudia Pena
Executive Director
For Freedoms
Lisa Rice
President and CEO
National Fair Housing Alliance
Loretta Ross
Professor for the Study of Women and Gender
Smith College
MacArthur Fellow
Richard Rothstein
Senior Fellow
Economic Policy Institute
Author
The Color of Law
Anat Shenker-Osorio
Founder
ASO Communications
Dorothy Stoneman
Founder
YouthBuild
MacArthur Fellow
Randi Weingarten
President and CEO
American Federation of Teachers
Michelle Williams
Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health
Harvard University
Valerie Wilson
Director
Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy
Economic Policy Institute
Felicia Wong
President and CEO
Roosevelt Institute
Julian Zelizer
Professor of History and Public Affairs
Princeton University
CNN Analyst
President of the Eisenhower Foundation in Washington DC, Alan Curtis was an appointee in the administrations of Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter. Dr. Curtis is author or editor of many books and holds degrees from Harvard, the University of London, and the University of Pennsylvania.
