Locked in the Poorhouse: Cities, Race, and Poverty in the United States

by Fred R. Harris (Editor)

Thirty years ago we had riots in the city streets. Then-President Johnson convened the Kerner Commission to examine the reasons why, and it concluded that the U.S. was "moving towards two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal." Today, the city streets are populated more variously and suffering more quietly, but more people in U.S. cities are poorer now than ever before. As this book shows, U.S. cities are becoming poorhouses for blacks and Hispanics, and city life incubates hopelessness borne of un- and underemployment, criminal victimization, and racial discrimination, especially against nonwhite males.
In an update of the original Kerner Commission report, the high profile authors represented here say they know what works and what doesn't in solving the problems of minorities in the city. To close what has been called "the millennium breach" between and among the races, we as a society must re-commit ourselves to basic principles and public and private programs geared toward more and better jobs, employment training, early childhood education and quality care, inner city economic development, and crime and drug prevention, among other priorities so essential to improving the quality of life for all in American cities.

Hardcover

First published December 17, 1998

About the author

Fred Roy Harris was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served in the United States Senate from 1964 to 1973, representing Oklahoma.
Born in Walters, Oklahoma, Harris was elected to the Oklahoma Senate after graduating from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. He ousted the appointed U.S. Senate incumbent J. Howard Edmondson and won a 1964 special election to finish Robert S. Kerr's term, narrowly defeating football coach Bud Wilkinson. Harris strongly supported the Great Society programs and criticized President Lyndon B. Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War. He was reelected in 1966 and declined to seek another term in 1972.
From 1969 to 1970, Harris served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee. In the 1968 presidential election, Democratic nominee Hubert Humphrey strongly considered him as his running mate. Harris unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972 and 1976. After 1976, he was a professor at the University of New Mexico.