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Published: Feb. 16, 2005

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights—Out of Commission
by Raynard Jackson, BV Views columnist

 
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has unfortunately run it’s course and should finally be abandoned. The commission has become embroiled in political infighting so as to render it impotent.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is an independent, bipartisan agency established by Congress in 1957, reconstituted in 1983, and reauthorized in 1994. It is directed to investigate complaints alleging that citizens are being deprived of their right to vote by reason of their race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or by reason of fraudulent practices; study and collect information relating to discrimination or a denial of equal protection of the laws under the Constitution because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice; appraise federal laws and policies with respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, or in the administration of justice; serve as a national clearinghouse for information in respect to discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws because of race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin; submit reports, findings, and recommendations to the President and Congress; and issue public service announcements to discourage discrimination or denial of equal protection of the laws.

The group’s former chairman, Mary Frances Berry, has been the most single destructive force within the commission. She proved to be a grossly incompetent member and a management disaster as chairman.

From 1980 to 2004, she was a member of the commission, and from
1993-2004 served as Chair. Between 1977 and 1980, Ms. Berry served as the
Assistant Secretary for Education in the U.S. Department of Health,
Education, and Welfare (HEW). She has also served as Provost of the
University of Maryland and Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Boulder.

In the early eighties, the commission became a “political dumping ground” for political patronage. President Carter appointed her to the commission 1980. She had a well documented reputation for alienating everyone she worked with. So to get her out of the newly created Department of Education, he appointed her to the commission.

Salon magazine reported that when Berry was assistant secretary of education under President Carter, officials there cut her out of policy decisions because "she'd shatter consensus and jeopardize initiatives ... she distrusted people [so] as to not be trustworthy herself ..."

"Oh, I remember Mary," a former Carter aide told Salon News. "She was a real loose cannon. We spent a lot of time smoothing over things after she'd opened her big mouth."
President Reagan subsequently fired her when he took office. But, the Democratic Congress rewrote the law giving them authority to appoint half the commission’s members. She was re-appointed and elevated to chairman under President Clinton.

In 1997, the General Accounting Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, found the Civil Rights Commission to be "an agency in disarray, with limited awareness how its resources are used ... the Commission could not provide key cost information for individual aspects of its operations ... significant agency records documenting Commission decision-making were reported lost, misplaced or nonexistent ..."

The report went on to questioned why only 10 percent of the CRC's money went to the anti-discrimination investigations and reports that are the agency's mission. It found that CRC reports took so long to complete that in many cases they were outdated and irrelevant by the time they were issued. For example hearings on the Los Angeles riots of 1992 weren't held until 1993 and the report wasn't issued until May, 1999.

We don’t need more civil rights or anti-discrimination laws on the books, we need more and better enforcement. The CRC has proven it’s irrelevance and should not be continued just because of an symbolic or emotional attachment.

We, as Blacks, must stop being seduced into holding onto relics of the civil rights movement and become more thoughtful in determining whether these programs and institutions are functional. We don’t have the luxury of being nostalgic at the expense of growth and progress.

President Bush getting rid of Mary Frances Berry is a step in the right direction; but getting rid of the entire commission would be even better.


Reach Raynard Jackson at raynardjackson@aol.com

Published: Feb. 16, 2005