Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights

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The Citizens' Commission on Civil Rights is a bipartisan organization established in 1982 to monitor the civil rights policies and practices of the federal government in the United States. Its work is grounded in the belief that the civil rights agenda benefits the entire country, not just particular interest groups. For the nation to remain strong, we must continue to struggle together to fight bias and invidious discrimination, to promote equality of opportunity in education, employment, and housing, to promote political and economic empowerment and to guarantee equal treatment in the administration of justice. Achieving these goals depends upon vigorous civil rights enforcement as a duty and obligation of the federal government. Over the last decade, the Citizens' Commission has been one of a handful of organizations that has had a profound influence on federal education reform designed to provide opportunity for poor children, children of color, children with limited English proficiency, and children with disabilities.

[edit] Affirmative Action

For more than 30 years, both Republican and Democratic Administrations, and bipartisan majorities in United States Congress, have recognized the compelling need to use affirmative action programs to remedy longstanding problems of discrimination. The Nixon Administration created the "Philadelphia Plan" that required federal contractors to use racial "goals and timetables" to hire qualified minority workers. The Reagan Administration supported minority business set-aside programs. The Clinton Administration sought to "mend, not end" affirmative action programs following adverse Supreme Court decisions. The Congress has created and extended programs to enhance minority contracting opportunities, and has defeated attempts to stop affirmative action programs in other areas. The Bush Administration has a mixed record on affirmative action.^[1]

The members of the Citizens' Commission are a diverse and distinguished group of former government officials and leaders in business, education, and religious and civic life. List of well known commissioners are Eleanor Holmes Norton, Roger Wilkins, Bill Bradley, Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, Frankie Muse Freeman, Ray Marshall, and the late Augustus F. Hawkins.