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 we 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 recommit 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.