1967 and the Crisis of Liberalism

This paper shows how the urban uprisings of 1967 forced a policy shift by the United States government in Washington. President Lyndon Johnson’s government responded to the uprisings by commissioning a government investigation, popularly known as the Kerner Commission, to identify the causes of urban rebellion. More importantly, and with less fanfare, the rebellions inspired the Department of Defense Civil Disturbance Plan, otherwise known as Garden Plot, which enabled the president to mobilize federal armed forces against domestic populations engaged in revolt. The new measure specifically followed a major rebellion in Detroit, Michigan, where the federal government deployed the U.S. Army. While the state mobilized the Army in Detroit as a contingency plan, it subsequently enshrined this repressive strategy into policy. This paper particularly considers the relationship between the Kerner Commission report and Garden Plot, illustrating how the crisis in liberalism exposed the state’s fascistic tendencies when dealing with recalcitrant racialized populations. Finally, because these uprisings exhibited parallels with liberation struggles transpiring around the world, including Viet Nam’s war of resistance against the United States, this paper examines how the government’s response to the uprisings in turn informed U.S. foreign policy. In effect, a global scope reveals both the organized nature of the urban uprisings and the coordinated transnational reaction by government authorities against the forces of liberation.