By Gail Heriot | Instantpundit.com
ON THIS DAY IN 1957: The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was
signed into law by President Eisenhower. It was the first civil rights
legislation since Reconstruction, and on the surface its purpose might seem
relatively modest–to create two new institutions, the Civil Rights Division of
the Department of Justice and the Commission on Civil Rights (on which I
currently sit). But those institutions were extremely important to the history
civil rights. Without them it would have been a lot hard to eliminate Jim
Crow.
Does the Commission on Civil Rights continue to serve a
good purpose?
That’s a question for Congress, not me.
In
2007, I
testified about the Commission to a Senate Committee celebrating the Act’s 50th anniversary.
Alas, I was much too optimistic about the
Commission’s ability to turn out useful reports. My defense is
that I was new to the Commission then. These days I’m tickled to death when I
can just get it not to embarrass itself.
On the other hand, it’s not impossible for the Commission
to do good work. While it’s always an uphill battle, we’ve done it a few times
in recent years.
