American Experience, The Riot Report 

PBS Western Reserve (WNEO 45.1 / WEAO 49.1):

Tuesday, May 21, at 9 PM
Wednesday, May 22, at 2 AM

Fusion (WNEO 45.2 / WEAO 49.2):

Saturday, May 25, at 3 PM 
Monday, May 27, at 8 PM

When Black neighborhoods in scores of cities erupted in violence during the summer of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson appointed the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders — informally known as the Kerner Commission — to answer three questions: What happened? Why did it happen? What could be done to prevent it from happening again? 

The bipartisan commission’s final report, issued in March of 1968, would offer a shockingly unvarnished assessment of American race relations — a verdict so politically explosive that Johnson not only refused to acknowledge it publicly but failed to thank the commissioners for their service. “The Riot Report” explores this pivotal moment in the nation’s history and the fraught social dynamics that simultaneously spurred the commission’s investigation and doomed its findings to political oblivion.