United States Commission on Civil Rights

SIGNIFICANCE: The reports and studies of the Commission on Civil Rights have been an important factor in the passage of major civil rights legislation.

The US Commission on Civil Rights was created in 1957 by Congress as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. It consisted of six members, appointed by the president and approved by Congress. The original purpose of the agency was to monitor civil rights (particularly violations of voting rights in the South), issue reports, and then disband, but Congress has continuously renewed its mandate. The Commission on Civil Rights (abbreviated as CRC, for Civil Rights Commission) was created in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. In this case, the Court decided that separate facilities for Black and White students in public education were unconstitutional. A year later, in Brown II, the Court ruled that schools must integrate with “all deliberate speed.” No specific timetable was given, however, for fear of further alienating White southerners.

The CRC helped lay the foundation for the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. The commission’s mandate involved investigating voting rights violations, collecting and studying voting data related to denials of equal protection under the law, and appraising federal laws and policies as they related to equal protection. In addition to creating the CRC, the 1957 Civil Rights Act made the civil rights component in the Justice Department a division and empowered the US attorney general to initiate civil court proceedings to enforce voting rights. The 1957 statute gave the attorney general the power to intervene only on a case-by-case basis, which was tedious, as there were thousands of cases of voting rights violations.

Civil Rights Legislation

During President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s administration, the CRC investigated voting rights violations in eight southern states and found no fewer than a hundred counties using discriminatory measures against African Americans. The Civil Rights Act of 1960 was passed as a result of the CRC’s 1959 report. Although the CRC had recommended that Congress pass legislation authorizing federal registrars in obstructionist districts, the act only provided court-appointed referees to oversee and resolve alleged voting rights abuses. Continuing studies by the CRC would assist in more powerful legislation in 1964 and 1965.

The 1964 Civil Rights Act was instrumental in the desegregation of public facilities in a still-segregated South. Based on ongoing concerns and studies by the CRC in education, voting, and employment, and influenced by the intensifying Civil Rights movement and the March on Washington in 1963, the 1964 act forbade racial discrimination in public facilities, voting registration procedures, and employment. The act empowered the attorney general to intervene and take civil action in cases of racial discrimination in public accommodations. It also cut federal funds to school districts that discriminated and created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to oversee discrimination complaints in the workplace.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the most powerful legislation in the area of suffrage, and it eliminated virtually all remaining loopholes. The act effectively took the process of voter registration out of the hands of states and localities, providing federal machinery for this process. The legislation also forbade literacy tests in most instances. In addition, a preclearance mechanism (often called Section 5) was put in place that required political districts to submit proposed changes in elections or districts to the federal government for approval. A “clean record” provision was instituted, allowing political districts to be removed from coverage of the preclearance provision if no discrimination or voting irregularities have been found for the previous ten years.

The CRC played a vital role in the extension of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and thus in continued suffrage among African Americans in the Deep South. One of the most controversial areas of the act, the preclearance provision, was challenged by southerners. Testimony by the CRC revealed that southern states, and particularly Mississippi, were seeking to subvert the intent of the act and dilute the Black vote and Black political victories. Legislatures did this by racial gerrymandering of political districts, going to at-large systems of municipal elections, developing multimember districts, and consolidating Black and White counties. The CRC was instrumental in the extension of Section 5 and the drafting of other provisions of the 1970 Voting Rights Act. Reports by the commission would play an important role in the 1975 and 1982 extensions of the act as well.

Challenges and Impact

A major challenge to the commission came in the early 1980s, after it issued a 1981 statement entitled Affirmative Action in the 1980s, which advocated quotas to ensure the hiring of minorities. President Ronald Reagan strongly opposed the recommendations and removed three of the CRC’s commissioners, appointing more conservative commissioners. A lawsuit ensued, and in 1983, Reagan was ordered by the courts to reinstate the commissioners he had fired. Also in 1983, the commission was reorganized by a compromise congressional act (Reagan had vowed to veto an act routinely renewing the commission) to consist of eight members chosen by the president and Congress. The commission was criticized from many quarters in the 1980s, partly for appearing to succumb to various political pressures, and many of its leaders, including Clarence Pendleton, were controversial. In the early 1990s, the CRC began to resume the more active role it had played in the past.

Originally intended as a watchdog agency, the CRC became essential as a bipartisan fact-finding body and a resource for both Congress and the president in developing legislation. While its early charge was in the area of voting rights, into the mid-2020s, it continued to conduct numerous studies and provide congressional testimony in education, housing, racial segregation, employment discrimination, and denial of civil rights on the basis of race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, or disability. In 2013, however, the Supreme Court’s decision in Shelby County v. Holder effectively halted the Voting Rights Act’s Section 5 preclearance system, shifting the focus from advance review of election changes to after‑the‑fact litigation. The CRC has continued to produce reports and hold hearings examining new barriers to voting and persistent discrimination.

Bibliography

Eisenberg, Theodore. "Civil Rights Commission." Civil Rights and Equality: Selections from the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, edited by Leonard W. Levy, et al. Macmillan, 1989.

Graham, Hugh Davis. Civil Rights and the Presidency. Oxford UP, 1992.

“Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.” University of Maryland, www2.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.

Jaynes, Gerald David, and Robin M. Williams, Jr., editors. A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Natl. Academy, 1989.

“News.” U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, www.usccr.gov/news. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.

"Our Mission." US Commission on Civil Rights, www.usccr.gov/about/mission. Accessed 19 Jan. 2026.