1959 September 5

South Carolina Congressman Wants to “Kick Out” U.S. Civil Rights Commission

 

Rep. L. Mendel Rivers (D–South Carolina) on this day denounced the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and its investigation of race discrimination throughout the South.

The Commission had been created by the 1957 Civil Rights Act (September 9, 1957). Rep. Rivers’ idea to “kick out” the Commission involved not renewing its existence in the pending 1960 Civil Rights Act. In a report released a few days later, the Civil Rights Commission recommended withholding all federal financial assistance to local areas where the public schools remained racially segregated.

The Civil Rights Commission was renewed by the 1960 Civil Rights Act, signed into law on May 6, 1960, and continues today. Important Civil Rights Commission reports included a report on police brutality across the country, released on November 17, 1961.

Read the 1959 Report of the Civil Rights Commission: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr11959.pdf

Find all the historical reports of the Civil Rights Commission: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/titlelist.html

Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here

Find a Day

Go
Abortion Rights ACLU african-americans Alice Paul anti-communism Anti-Communist Hysteria Birth Control Brown v. Board of Education Censorship CIA Civil Rights Civil Rights Act of 1964 Cold War Espionage Act FBI First Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom of speech Free Speech Gay Rights Hate Speech homosexuality Hoover, J. Edgar HUAC Japanese American Internment King, Dr. Martin Luther Ku Klux Klan Labor Unions Lesbian and Gay Rights Loyalty Oaths McCarthy, Sen. Joe New York Times Obscenity Police Misconduct Same-Sex Marriage Separation of Church and State Sex Discrimination Smith Act Spying Spying on Americans Vietnam War Voting Rights Voting Rights Act of 1965 War on Terror Watergate White House Women's Rights Women's Suffrage World War I World War II Relocation Camps

Topics

Tell Us What You Think

We want to hear your comments, criticisms and suggestions!