Creating Justice in a Multiracial Democracy: New Will for Evidence-Based Policies That Work

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.