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