The Economic Policy Institute is proud to co-sponsor the upcoming Kerner Commission at 50 Conference, hosted jointly at Johns Hopkins University and UC Berkeley.

Organized by EPI, the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley and the 21st Century Cities Initiative at Johns Hopkins, the conference will be held February 27-March 1, 2018 to commemorate and investigate the Kerner Commission and its contemporary significance.

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 confronted by the Commission.

As the 50th anniversary of the report’s release falls on March 1—and the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act two months later—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 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); Johns Hopkins University (satellite)

When: Feb. 27-March 1, 2018

Click here to register for the Johns Hopkins University Baltimore location and here to register for the conference at UC Berkeley.