April 2001
The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) is the nation's oldest and most diverse coalition of civil rights organizations. The 180 member organizations of the LCCR represent 50 million Americans who are persons of color, children, women, older persons, labor union members, individuals with disabilities, gays and lesbians, and members of major religious, civil liberties and human rights groups. Their unified cause is to ensure that America is true to its promise of equal justice, equal opportunity and mutual respect. Our nation's future depends upon finding new ways for the world's most diverse people to live and work together in peace.
This is a sensitive moment in the history of American civil rights. Despite decades of advances in eradicating discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations, disillusionment and distrust is rampant among persons committed to equal opportunity. LCCR has a responsibility to help rebuild the trust of these Americans in the government as protector and enforcer of fairness and equality. The LCCR's agenda is more urgent than ever: fighting discrimination in all its forms, improving relations among the varied communities that comprise our country and promoting the full participation of every American in every facet of our nation's life.
Civil rights must become a concern of the highest priority for the Bush Administration and in particular the Department of Justice. Although LCCR opposed the nomination and confirmation of John Ashcroft as Attorney General of the United States, we welcome the commitment he voiced at his confirmation hearings to vigorously enforce the civil rights laws because, as he recently stated, "[E]very American has a right to expect that the implementation and enforcement of the laws be fair and be equal and that the protections of the law be accorded to all." (February 12, 2001).
It is often said that civil rights is the unfinished business of America. In this report, we set forth a series of challenges that represent the unfinished business of civil rights. To be sure, these are not the only issues of concern to LCCR members; efforts to combat poverty, expand access to health care and promote economic development, for example, are vitally important to many of the groups that comprise LCCR. And, while not every member organization has a position on every issue discussed in this document, the members of the LCCR are united in their work for a more just society.
The issues discussed below are at the core of the fight for equal justice under law. If President Bush wishes to engage the civil rights community in a concrete constructive dialogue, these issues are the subject matter of that conversation.
To that end, LCCR respectfully presents to the new Administration a civil rights agenda.
