Rev. Marvin Hunter to host Town Hall Forum on the 1967 Kerner Report Focusing on The Causes of Racism Then And Now

What did America learn from the Kerner Report’s study
of the civil disorder from the 60s 

Rev. Marvin Gaye Hunter, pastor of the Grace Memorial Church, 1457 So. Kenneth Avenue in Chicago, is hosting and chairing a panel and town hall discussion 4 p.m., Wednesday, July 15^th, streaming live from his church located in the Lawndale community.

 

The discussion will be live streamed on YouTube and Facebook.

The panelists will be talking about and analyzing the 1967 Kerner Report commissioned by the Johnson administration.

 

The panelists include former Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (D-7^th), Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon, retired Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell, DePaul University Law Professor Steve Resnicoff, activists Mama Dee and Derrick Harris and author Rick Perlstein.

The panel will be moderated by two Chicago media personalities: N’DIGO publisher Hermene Hartman and retired ABC 7 political editor/WVON  Charles Thomas.

The goal of the event is to assess the implementation of the recommendations of the report and glean lessons to address the current state of racial tension and continued discrimination and division in the United States.

 

The 53-year-old report found that poverty and institutional racism were driving inner-city violence and the expert panel will look back at the recommendations of the report and assess
what went wrong in the implementation phase and consider steps for the future.

 

Some of the topics to be discussed will include economic reinvestment in the south and west sides of Chicago, policing and gun violence, housing, politics, education, the role of the media, health care and other resources needed for families to flourish.

There will be a town hall question and answer session at the end of the event. Links for the live stream will be posted online along with advance free tickets required to attend.

 

All information will be posted starting Sunday July 12th at 7 a.m. on TheLawndaleView.com and The Lawndale View on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

To request information or request a ticket via email contact Pastor Hunter at [email protected]  or [email protected].

Following the event, further discussion and follow-up on ways to address and heal racial divisions and poverty in the U.S. will be continued on a new podcast entitled, “The Lawndale View,” co-hosted by Pastor Hunter and Governor Quinn. The capstone episode of the podcast will be an hour long edited summary of the “Kerner Report Revisited”
July 15th panel recorded at the live event at Grace Memorial.

“The Lawndale View” podcast episodes will continue with powerhouse co-hosts Pastor Hunter and Governor Quinn teaming up to conduct discussions and interviews with a wide range of fascinating guests focused on looking at America from the perspective of one of its hot
spots – North Lawndale on the West Side of Chicago. 

 

Each host is fascinating and experienced leaders in their own right who have worked to improve life in a city and state that provides lessons for the entire country and the world.  The chemistry and friendship between them will provide a fast paced, fun, intellectually-stimulating hour that will provide a unique and badly needed window into one of the least covered and most important corners of urban life in the United States.

 

“The Lawndale View” will provide a new outlet for honest analysis based on deep experience of the struggle Americans of all races, urban and rural, face in 2020 confronting poverty, racism, lack of education and opportunity and offer healing and constructive positive ideas to improve American life for all.