# Otto Kerner **Otto Kerner Jr.** (1908–1976) was a Democratic governor of Illinois from 1961 to 1968 who chaired the national commission on the urban riots of 1967, whose [[Kerner Report]] carries his name. He then became a federal appeals judge, and in 1973 was convicted of federal crimes over racetrack stock he had received while governor. (His father, Otto Kerner Sr., was also Illinois attorney general and a judge on the same federal appeals court.) ## Why he matters Kerner's name is attached to one of the most important government reports of the civil rights era, the one that told white America "white institutions created" the ghetto. His own later conviction is part of Illinois's long record of governors who ended up in court. The two halves of his life are usually told separately; they belong on the same page. ## Career Born in Chicago, Kerner served as an artillery officer in World War II and rose to major general in the Illinois National Guard. He was U.S. attorney in Chicago from 1947 to 1954 and a Cook County judge from 1954 to 1961. He was elected governor in 1960 and reelected in 1964, defeating Republican Charles Percy. In July 1967 President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] named him chair of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Its report, released at the end of February 1968, warned that the nation was "moving toward two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal." Johnson then nominated Kerner to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; he was confirmed in April 1968. ## The conviction While governor, Kerner had bought stock in Illinois racetracks on highly favorable terms and later sold it at a large profit. Prosecutors charged that the stock was a payoff for official favors to the racing industry. He was indicted in December 1971 and convicted in February 1973 on 17 counts, including mail fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and perjury. An appeals court later threw out 13 counts but upheld four mail-fraud convictions. He was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $50,000. Facing almost certain impeachment, he resigned from the bench on July 22, 1974, and entered a federal prison in Lexington, Kentucky. He was released early in 1975 after being diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and died in Chicago on May 9, 1976. ## Connections - [[Kerner Report]] - [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] - [[Edward Brooke]]: fellow commission member.