'Icons' Resign from Civil Rights Commission
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 12/15/2004
Mary Frances Berry and Cruz Reynoso will be "sorely missed" from the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, according to Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR).Chairperson Berry and Vice Chair Reynoso resigned last week. President Bush has named a new chair, Gerald A. Reynolds, and a new vice chair, Abigail Thernstrom.
Also last week, Berry and Reynoso sent the President a 166-page report detailing how the administration has failed to break down existing barriers to equality and has done little to advance the civil rights of a number of disadvantaged groups such as immigrants, Native Americans, people with disabilities, women, and gays and lesbians.
Henderson noted the two commissioners' distinguished careers, calling them "icons of the civil rights movement."
Berry's "leadership and commitment to the enforcement of civil rights laws has been unwavering over the course of a tenure that spans nearly 25 years and five presidents," said Henderson.
Reynoso is "one of the leading Latino civil rights leaders of his generation, having devoted his energy throughout his distinguished career to the tireless pursuit of social justice - work that resulted, among countless other honors, in his being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian award," Henderson stated.
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is made up of eight commissioners, with four appointed by the President and four by Congress. It investigates civil rights complaints, which it refers to the appropriate federal, state, or local government agency or private organization for action.
