Editing Kerner Commission (section)

== Background ==
{{Main|Ghetto riots (1964–1969)}}
[[Lyndon B. Johnson|President Johnson]] appointed the Commission on July 28, 1967, while rioting was still underway in [[1967 Detroit riot|Detroit]]. There had been mounting civil unrest in a few predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods since 1965, but what happened in 1967 shocked and terrified much of America as the evening news seemed to regularly show [[National Guard (United States)|National Guardsmen]] and police crouching behind parked cars, tanks rumbling down dark streets, towering fires, and blocks and blocks of rubble and broken windows.

In his remarks upon signing the order to establish the Commission, Johnson asked for answers to three basic questions about the riots: "What happened? Why did it happen? What can be done to prevent it from happening again and again?"<ref name="Johnson1967Remarks" />