Last Kerner Commission member haunted, hopeful on race in US

This March 1, 1969 file photo shows Sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma at a Democratic party commission meeting in Washington, D.C. Harris, the last surviving member of the Kerner Commission, says he remains haunted that the panel’s recommendations on US race relation and poverty were never adopted, but he is hopeful they will be one day. Former U.S. Sen. Fred Harris says 50 years after working on a report to examine the causes of the late 1960s race riots, he strongly feels that poverty and structural racism still enflames racial tensions even as the United States becomes more diverse. ((AP Photo, File)