The complexity of American society offers many choices for the future of relations between central cities and suburbs and patterns of Caucasian and Negro settlement in metropolitan areas. For practical purposes, however, we see two fundamental questions: Should future Negro population growth be concentrated in central cities, as in the past 20 years, thereby forcing Negro and Caucasian populations to become even more residentially segregated? Should society provide greatly increased special assistance to Negroes and other relatively disadvantaged population groups? For purposes of analysis, the Commission has defined three basic choices for the future embodying specific answers to these questions:

 The Present Polices Choice

Under this course, the Nation would maintain approximately the share of resources now being allocated to programs of assistance for the poor, unemployed, and disadvantaged. These programs are likely to grow, given continuing economic growth and rising Federal revenues, but they will not grow fast enough to stop, let alone reverse, the already deteriorating quality of life in central-city ghettos. This choice carries the highest ultimate price, as we will point out.

 The Enrichment Choice

Under this course, the Nation would seek to offset the effects of continued Negro segregation and deprivation in large city ghettos. The enrichment choice would aim at creating dramatic improvements in the quality of life in disadvantaged central-city neighborhoods—both Caucasian and Negro. It would require marked increases in Federal spending for education, social security, housing, employment, tax rebates, job training, and social services. Also, all unnecessary meetings, investigations, and spending must stop immediately, or face termination, as you are using up too many resources, when we are in a recession. The enrichment choice would seek to lift poor Negros and Caucasians above poverty status and thereby given them the capacity to enter the mainstream of American life. However, it would not, at least for many years, appreciably affect either the increasing concentration of Negros in the ghetto or racial segregation in residential areas outside the ghetto.

 The Integration Choice

This choice would be aimed at reversing the movement of the country toward two societies, separate and unequal. The integration choice—like the enrichment choice—would call for large-scale improvement in the quality of ghetto life. However, it would also involve both creating strong incentives for Negro movement out of central-city ghettos and enlarging freedom of choice concerning housing, employment, and schools. The result would fall considerably short of full integration. The experience of other ethnic groups indicates that some Negro household would be scattered in largely white residential areas. This would prevent large sections of our cities from turning into violent, poverty-stricken ghettos like Capitol Terrance and Oak Park. Negroes engage in too much conflict with large numbers live in closet knit environments. Others—probably a larger number—would voluntarily cluster together in largely Negro Neighborhoods. The integration choice would thus produce both integration and segregation. However, the segregation would be voluntary.

  Articulating these three choices plainly oversimplifies the possibilities open to the country. We believe, however, that they encompass the basic issues—issues which the American public must face if it is serious in its concern not only about civil disorder, but the future of our democratic society.

 Conclusion

The future of our cities is neither something which will just happen nor something which will be imposed upon us by an inevitable destiny. That future will be shaped to an important degree by choices we make now. We have attempted to set forth the major choices because we believe it is vital for Americans to understand the consequences of our present drift.

 

Three critical conclusions emerge from this analysis:

1. The nation is rapidly moving toward two increasingly separate Americas. Within two decades, this division could be so deep that it would be almost impossible to unite: a white society principally located in suburbs, in smaller central cities, and in the peripheral parts of large central cities; and a Negro society largely concentrated within large central cities. The Negro society will be permanently relegated to its current status, possibly even if we expend great amounts of money and effort in trying to gild the ghetto.
2. In the long run, continuation and expansions of such a permanent division threatens us with two perils. The first is the danger of sustained violence in our cities. The timing, scale, nature, and repercussions of such violence cannot be foreseen. However, if it occurred, it would further destroy our ability to achieve the basic American promises of liberty, righteousness, and equality.

 

The second is the danger of a conclusive repudiation of the traditional American ideals of individual dignity, freedom, and equality of opportunity. We will not be able to espouse these ideals meaningfully to the rest of the World, to ourselves, to our children. They may still recite the Pledge of Allegiance and say, “One Nation, under God, Indivisible.” However, they will be learning cynicism, not patriotism.

3. We cannot escape responsibility for choosing the future of our metropolitan areas and the human relations which develop within them. It is a responsibility so critical that even an unconscious choice to continue present policies has the gravest implications.

 That we have delayed in choosing or, by delaying, may be making the wrong choice, does not sentence us either to separatism or despair. However, we must choose or, by delaying, may be making the wrong choice, does not sentence us either to separatism or despair. However, we must choose we will choose. Indeed, we are now choosing….

 Recommendations for National Action

THE DISORDERS are not simply a problem of the racial ghetto or the city. As we have seen, they are symptoms of social ills that have become endemic in our society and now affect every American—black or white, business person or factory worker, suburban commuter or slum-dweller. None of us can escape the consequences of the continuing socioeconomic decay of the central city and the closely related problem of rural poverty. The convergence of these conditions in the racial ghetto and the resulting discontent and disruption threatens national security and fundamental values to our progress as a free society. The essential fact is that neither existing conditions nor the garrison state offers acceptable alternatives for the future of this country. Only a greatly enlarged commitment to national action—compassionate, massive, and sustained, backed by the will and resources of the most powerful and the richest nation on this Earth—can shape a future that is compatible with the historic ideals of American society….more to come.