Part I. Civil Rights, 1961

In war and peace the American people have met challenge after challenge with vigor and resourcefulness. Perhaps the most persistent challenge is the one to which this Commission addresses itself in this report— the challenge of civil rights.

The Republic began with an obvious inconsistency between its precepts of liberty and the fact of slavery. The words of the Declaration of Independence were clear:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Equally clear was the fact that Negroes were not free. The great American experiment in self-government began for white people only. The inconsistency between the Nation's principles and its practices has diminished over the years. Constitutional amendments, court decisions, acts of Congress, Executive orders, administrative rulings, State and local legislation, the work of private agencies, efforts by Negroes and other minority groups-all these have helped remove many of the barriers to full citizenship for all.

The gains have been considerable. As the second term of this Commission draws to a close, it can report that more persons than ever before are exercising more fully their rights as citizens of the United States. The American people are increasingly aware that professions of belief in the dignity of man have meaning only if they are realized by all people in all aspects of life. The gap between the promise of liberty and its fulfillment is narrower today than it has ever been.

Yet a gap remains. In the changing world of 1961 it seems wide and deep, and the demand to close it is more urgent than ever. Perhaps this is because the closer we come to the achievement of our ideals, the more obvious and galling is the remaining disparity. Partly, too, events in a rapidly changing world have put a new focus on the way in

which the United States puts it principles into practice. The emergence of new nonwhite nations in Africa and Asia does not make an inequity any more unjust. It may, however, make remedial action more urgent.

The report that follows attempts to measure the remaining gap between the American promise and its fulfillment; to tell of progress that has been made, and to suggest approaches for what remains to be done.

This report principally concerns the civil rights problems of Negroes. Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and other minorities to some extent still suffer inequalities and deprivation. But Negroes are our largest minority group, and their rights are denied more often in more respects and in more places than are those of any other group. Of all minorities, Negroes seem most closely bound to the history and conscience of America. Their struggle has become symbolic. By measuring the extent to which they enjoy civil rights, we may measure our respect for freedom. To the extent that this Nation can successfully resolve its racial problems, it lends hope to afflicted minorities and troubled majorities everywhere. For this Nation is concerned not just with the civil rights of a particular minority. It is concerned with human rights for all men everywhere.

PROGRESS DURING THE LAST TWO YEARS

The 2 years since the Commission submitted its first report have brought dynamic changes in civil rights at all levels of government. These are some of the milestones of progress on the national level:

• In 1960 Congress passed the second Civil Rights Act since 1875, strengthening the measures available to the Federal Government for dealing with such matters as discriminatory denials of the right to vote, obstruction of Federal court orders, and bombing or other desecration of schools and churches.1

• Through the courts the Federal Government acted energetically to secure the constitutional rights of its citizens against invasion by the States: it brought suits to protect the right of Negroes to vote without discrimination or coercion on account of race in 15 counties in Alabama, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi, and Tennessee; 2 in New Orleans it intervened in a school desegregation suit to protect its courts and its citizens against State defiance of the law of the land; 3 in Montgomery, Ala., it sued to protect the right of Americans to travel freely among the States,

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without distinction or obstruction because of their race; * again in New Orleans, and in Montgomery, it sued to end segregation in airport facilities built in part with Federal funds; 5 in Jackson, Miss., it intervened in a suit to restrain arrests of persons seeking unsegregated service in bus terminals; * in Biloxi, Miss., it brought suit to assure that a public beach constructed with funds from the National Government would be available to all the public without racial discrimination."

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• With the creation of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity in 1961, the executive branch of the Federal Government took a major step to achieve the national policy that there shall be no discrimination on grounds of race, color, creed, or national origin, either in employment by the Government itself, or in employment created by funds dispensed from the National Treasury.R

• The President of the United States publicly affirmed his support of the Supreme Court's decision that segregated public schools were forbidden by the Constitution.

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• The Supreme Court, followed by the lower Federal courts, has firmly upheld constitutional and statutory commands against discrimination in this period:

It held in 1961 that a State could not redraw municipal boundary lines on racial grounds.10

In 1961 it held that the operation of a private restaurant in space leased from a public agency was State action within the meaning of the 14th amendment; and that the facility, therefore, could not be operated on a discriminatory basis.11

In 1960 it held that Congress had forbidden racial segregation in services provided for interstate travelers even if the services are not provided directly by an interstate carrier itself.12

Also in 1960 it upheld the 1957 Civil Rights Act against constitutional attack.13

• State and local governments also took important steps:

Twenty-three State laws aimed at preventing racial or religious discrimination in such areas as housing, employment, and public accommodations were enacted or strengthened-not only in Northern and Western States but in border States such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Delaware, Missouri, and Kansas.14

In the deeper South, Georgia followed the example of Virginia in abandoning massive resistance to the requirements of the Constitution regarding public education.15 The first public educational institution in Georgia-the University of Georgia-was successfully desegregated with only temporary difficulty, and preparations were made for the orderly advent of desegregation in the Atlanta public schools.1 Thus, all but three States (Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina)

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had made at least some progress toward the constitutional operation of public schools and colleges." A handful of school districts in the South passed quietly and without difficulty from segregation into a program of compliance with the Constitution.18

With or without lawsuits, public libraries, parks, and recreation facilities were successfully desegregated in a number of southern cities.

• Perhaps the most important events of the period, however, were brought about by private citizens:

On February 1, 1960, four freshmen students from the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College entered a variety store in Greensboro, made several purchases, then sat down at the lunch counter and ordered coffee. They were refused service because they were Negroes, but they remained in their seats until the store closed.19 Thus began the sit-in movement, a movement of protest mainly by Negro youth. It spread rapidly through the South and even to some places in the North, manifesting itself as well in other forms of peaceful protest-kneel-ins, stand-ins, wade-ins, and more recently and spectacularly in the "Freedom Rides." 20 This protest movement has aroused widespread interest and strong feelings. Although doubts of its wisdom and concern as to its methods are genuinely felt by many, there can be no question that its moral impetus is strong, that it expresses a profound and widespread demand for faster realization of equal opportunity for Negroes, or that it will continue until the issues raised by its demands have been resolved. Partly as a result of the sit-ins, there has been a marked change, for the most part unpublicized and without drama, in many southern cities. Racial barriers have been removed not only in areas where the law of the land supported the claim for equal treatment-as in publicly operated facilities and interstate transportation terminals-but also in many areas of private concern where no legal compulsion has been held to exist. By the close of 1960, for instance, variety store chains had opened lunch counters in 112 southern and border cities to Negro patrons.'

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Equally important has been the growing awareness among thoughtful southern white leaders of the dimensions of civil rights problems. James J. Kilpatrick, a Virginian, editor of the Richmond News-Leader, and one of the earliest proponents of massive resistance to school desegregation, spoke for many when he said: 22

What I am groping to say is that many a southerner is seeing now, and hearing now. Aspects of segregation that once were his nonconcern now trouble his spirit uncomfortably: Sit-ins. Segregated libraries. Certain job discrimination. Genuinely unequal schools in some areas. The Negro as citizen, as a political being possessed of equal rights, never had existed in the white southerner's past as he begins to exist now. The familiar black faces,

seen through new glasses, are startlingly unfamiliar. A sense of the Negro point of view, totally unrecognized before, stir uneasily in the conscious mind.

That Mr. Kilpatrick spoke for many responsible white southerners is confirmed by their effective efforts in such vital spots as Little Rock, Atlanta, and New Orleans to keep public schools open, even if it meant desegregation.23 A number of church and other organizations throughout the South have decried the immorality of all forms of racial discrimination.

In the North and West as well, private groups have become increasingly active in expressing by action as well as words a belief in equal treatment regardless of race, creed, or ancestry.24

PROBLEMS STILL UNSOLVED

Despite this progress, however, the Nation still faces substantial and urgent problems in civil rights. It is with these that the Commission, by virtue of its statutory directive, has been principally concerned. Among the major civil rights problems discussed in the report that follows are these:

In some 100 counties in eight Southern States there is reason to believe that Negro citizens are prevented by outright discrimination or by fear of physical violence or economic reprisal-from exercising the right to vote.25

There are many places throughout the country where, though citizens may vote freely, their votes are seriously diluted by unequal electoral districting, or malapportionment.

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There are many counties in the South where a substantial Negro population not only has no voice in government, but suffers extensive deprivation-legal, economic, educational, and social.27

There are still some places in the Nation where the fear of racial violence clouds the atmosphere.28 There is reason to hope that the worst form of such violence-lynching-has disappeared; no incidents have occurred during the last 2 years. Still, mob violence has erupted several times in response to the campaign for recognition of Negro rights-in Jacksonville, Fla., and New Orleans, La.; in Anniston, Montgomery, and Birmingham, Ala.; in Chicago, Ill.29

Unlawful violence by the police remains in 1961 not a regional but a national shame.80