What was the name of the 1968 federal commission that investigated the causes of urban riots?

The Kerner Commission was the 1968 federal commission that investigated the causes of urban riots in the United States.

President Lyndon B. Johnson established the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders after major unrest in cities including Newark and Detroit. Illinois governor Otto Kerner Jr. chaired the eleven-member commission, which released its report on February 29, 1968.

The report concluded that the country was moving toward “two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal.” It linked unrest to systemic racism, unemployment, poor housing, inadequate education, and unequal policing rather than treating riots as isolated criminal events.

The commission’s formal name was the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, but it became widely known as the Kerner Commission. It was not the Warren Commission, which investigated President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.