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Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, frequently advocates for equal justice and equal opportunity by testifying before Congress. Over the years, Henderson has spoken out on Capitol Hill on some of the nation's most pressing issues, including the nomination of Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, reauthorization of the historic Voting Rights Act, No Child Left Behind, and the current immigration debate.
Check out Henderson's testimony below:
Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee
"Strengthening Our Economy: Foreclosure Prevention and Neighborhood Preservation"
January 31, 2008
"It is now finally well-accepted that the mortgage lending industry engaged in the widespread use of utterly reckless and predatory lending practices during the nationwide housing market "boom" that took place throughout much of this decade. While the use of responsible subprime lending could have created meaningful homeownership opportunities for people who might otherwise be left out of the market, many homeowners were deceptively steered into expensive subprime mortgages even though they qualified for prime loans, with unreasonable terms and hidden fees that made it impossible for homeowners to stay current, much less get ahead – and there were clear, significant racial and ethnic disparities in the manner in which this was done."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Judiciary Committee
"The Growing Mortgage Foreclosure Crisis: Identifying Solutions and Dispelling Myths"
January 29, 2008
"The consequences are still unfolding, but one thing is certain: they will be staggering. Home foreclosure rates are rapidly increasing throughout the nation and, according to an estimate by the Center for Responsible Lending, as many as 2.4 million borrowers – just in the subprime market alone – are likely to lose their homes. The wave of foreclosures will have an especially harsh impact on racial and ethnic minority homeowners who, according to several studies, were roughly two to three times more likely to be steered into high-cost loans than white borrowers, with strong disparities persisting even after credit factors were taken into account."
Full testimony (PDF).
Federal Communications Commission
Public Hearing on Localism
October 31, 2007
"We in the civil rights community care about media ownership because the way the public looks at issues – indeed, whether the public is even aware of issues like fair housing or voter discrimination, is directly related to the way these issues are covered by the media. The way the media covers issues is directly related to who the reporters and producers and anchors are—to who is actually employed by the media. Who is employed by the media is directly related to who owns the media. And who owns the media is directly related to policies that determine who gets a federal license to operate and who does not."
Full testimony. (PDF)
Senate Judiciary committee
"The 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and its Continuing Importance"
September 5, 2007
"In order for the Division to once again play a significant role in the struggle to achieve equal opportunity for all Americans, it must rid itself of the missteps of the recent past, but also work to forge a new path. It must respond to contemporary problems of race and inequality with contemporary solutions. It must continue to use the old tools that work; but when they don't, it must develop new tools. It must be creative and nimble in the face of an ever-moving target."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Judiciary Committee
"The Impact of Ledbetter v. Goodyear on the Effective Enforcement of Civil Rights Laws"
June 28, 2007
"Pay discrimination is a type of hidden discrimination that continues to be an important issue in the United States. In the fiscal year 2006, individuals filed over 800 charges of unlawful, sex-based pay discrimination with the EEOC. Unfortunately, under the Ledbetter rationale, many meritorious claims will never be adjudicated."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs/Housing Subcommittee
"Ending Mortgage Abuse: Safeguarding Homebuyers"
June 26, 2007
"For years, civil rights and consumer protection groups have been arguing that the modern subprime mortgage lending system is fundamentally flawed, that countless numbers of irresponsible and abusive loans were being made, and that the consequences for both borrowers and our economy at large would be drastic. It has long been clear to our groups that America has a separate and unequal lending system and that African-American, Latino and other minority consumers disproportionately secure credit from an unscrupulous and unregulated lending market."
Full testimony (PDF).
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight of the Civil Rights Division
June 21, 2007
"We expect a Civil Rights Division that enforces the nation's civil rights laws, without fear or favor. We must demand accountability and a return to vigorous enforcement...The Division's record on every score has undermined effective enforcement of our nation's civil rights laws, but it is the personnel changes to career staff that are, in many ways, most disturbing. For it is the staff that builds trust with communities, develops the cases, and negotiates effective remedies. Career staff has always been the soul of the Division, and it is now under attack."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Education and Labor Committees
"Justice Denied? The Implications of the Supreme Court's Ledbetter Employment Discrimination Decision"
June 12, 2007
"The reality is that every time an employee receives a paycheck that is lessened by discrimination, it is an act of discrimination by the employer. The harm is ongoing; the remedy should be too. In many of these cases, as in Ledbetter, the Court is acting as a legislature, making its own policy while acting directly contrary to Congress's intent. For years, we in the civil rights community have watched as the Supreme Court has rolled back the ability of victims of discrimination to obtain meaningful remedies. But the watching is over. It is time – past time – to take action."
Full testimony (PDF).
Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Hearing on Equal Representation in Congress: Providing Voting Rights to the District of Columbia
May 15, 2007
"The continued disenfranchisement of D.C. residents before Congress stands out as the most blatant violation today of the most important civil right we have, the right to vote. Without the ability to hold our leaders accountable, all of our other rights are illusory… Until D.C. residents have a vote in Congress, they will not be much better off than African Americans in the South were prior to August 6,1965, when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law – and the efforts of the civil rights movement will remain incomplete."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Judiciary Commitee/Immigration Subcommittee
Hearing on the U.S. Economy, U.S. Workers, and Immigration Reform
May 3, 2007
"It is easy to focus on the charge that undocumented immigrants have broken the rules in order to get here. We do not need to condone violations of our immigration laws. But as we do in most other circumstances, we should also look at why these individuals broke the rules. Motives count. And most of these 12 million people have broken the rules not to "steal jobs," to live off the government, or to take advantage of anyone else. Instead, most of them have been motivated, to the point where many have even risked their lives to come here, by the desire to escape economic or political hardships that few native-born Americans today could fully understand. And they are all too often enticed here by employers who are perfectly happy to use and abuse them in the process."
Full testimony (PDF).
House Judiciary Committee
House Judiciary Committee Oversight of the Civil Rights Division
March 22, 2007
"Members of the Committee, today you begin a process that is long overdue. A process that will help us to understand the extent of the damage that has been done to the Civil Rights Division, and – hopefully – a roadmap for our way back to vigorous enforcement, integrity, and justice. And to a Civil Rights Division the nation can again be proud of."
Full testimony (PDF).
Joint Hearing of the House and Senate Education Committees
"Elementary and Secondary Education Act Reauthorization: Improving NCLB to Close the Achievement Gap"
March 13, 2007
"Access to a high quality public education is still a fundamental right upon which all others depend; and yet 50 years later, the promise of Brown remains unfulfilled. Inequality is rampant by almost every measure. NCLB's test scores paint a bleak picture of the achievement gap, with virtually every state's white students passing state exams at a significantly higher rate than low income, minority, and language minority students."
Full testimony (PDF).
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