The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

• Table of Contents
• Executive Summary
• Introduction
• I. Creating the Commission
• II. The Commission’s Early Years
• III. The 60s: Laying the Foundation for Legislation
• IV. The 70s: School Desegregation and an Expanded Mandate
• V. The 80s: Dismantling the Commission
• VI. The 90s: The Commission Devolves
• VII. The Post-Millennial Commission
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• Acknowledgements

Executive Summary

For decades, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission played a crucial role in securing and protecting the civil rights of American citizens who had been historically disenfranchised and segregated from mainstream society, particularly African Americans and other minorities.

Established by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the bipartisan, independent commission investigated and documented attempts to prevent access to the voting booth or to otherwise thwart the civil rights aspirations of American citizens.

In the process, it established a record that generated support for laws that secured and protected the civil rights of all Americans, including voting rights, public accommodations, education, and employment.

More than just a register of injustices, the commission served as the "conscience of the nation," supplying the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice - also set up by the 1957 law - with the evidence to justify use of federal enforcement to protect civil rights.

For over 40 years, the eight-member commission acted as the bulwark on which landmark civil rights legislation rested.

Beginning with President Ronald Reagan’s administration in the 1980s, however, efforts were made to weaken and undermine the integrity and independence of the commission. These efforts continue to this day. For example, appointments to the commission by President Bush and the Senate Republican leadership struck at the very core of the commission’s independence. Two commissioners changed their party affiliation from Republican to Independent enabling Mr. Bush to add two more Republican members, now six, to a commission that is, by statute, supposed to be bipartisan.

Today, the commission is so debilitated as to be considered moribund. With a new administration, there is the opportunity to take a fresh look at this venerable institution and make the necessary changes to restore it to its former status as the "conscience of the nation."

The following report chronicles the need for and the history of the commission over the years, building the kind of measured case it was noted for, a case that reflects the need for an entirely new entity that returns to the commission’s original mandate and expands on it to preserve and protect the civil and human rights of all American citizens.

To do this we recommend:

• Creation of a new commission, consisting of seven members. The members will serve four year staggered terms. Each commissioner will be appointed by the president, and subject to Senate confirmation. The staff director and general counsel will be career Senior Executive Service positions.
• Creation of a civil rights unit as part of the Government Accountability Office to focus on monitoring federal agency compliance with and enforcement of federal civil rights laws.
• Addition to the commission’s mandate (i.e., discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, gender, age or disability) of an examination of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Authorization of the commission to hold hearings across the country to better understand the landscape of equal opportunity involving various regions and protected groups. Based on these hearings, and other information, the commission will have the responsibility to make policy recommendations to the president and Congress. The commission will retain the authority to subpoena witnesses to participate in such hearings.
• The name of the commission shall be the United States Commission on Civil and Human Rights. Changing the commission’s name to reflect the human rights dimension of its work would make more explicit its authority to examine U.S. compliance with these international treaties as part of its existing mandate to examine compliance with legal obligations that affect civil rights.
• Support for state and local governmental efforts. The commission should support the work of state human rights and human relations commissions and other relevant state and local agencies. This support should include a federal grants program, education and training initiatives, and staff dedicated to coordinating state and local efforts with the commission’s own work.

Next Section: Introduction