ABSTRACT
In 1967, after two years of spiraling urban riots threatened to lock the nation in a state of perpetual anarchy, President Lyndon Johnson convened a panel to study the reasons for the festering black rage and make recommendations on how to address it. The newspaper industry, which, beginning with the cataclysmic Watts riots of 1965, had begun hiring more and more black journalists, found in the Kerner report cause for heightened urgency. In 1978, as American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) took stock of minority hiring in the 10 years since the Kerner report, its minority committee reported that while minority hiring had been significant, it was not sufficient. ASNE's report also noted that while the Kerner report had focused on blacks, 10 years later the definition of minorities had necessarily been broadened to include Native Americans and the growing numbers of Latinos and Asians.
