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State University of Iowa Human Rights Committee first annual report and correspondence, 1963

An Analysis of the Kastenmeier Omnibus Civil Rights Bill Page 3

[illegible] President's bill, [illegible] chapter 307 (a) (c), his right to intervene is not limited to those cases where the party who commenced the private action is unable to continue it. 
   Third. The Attorney General may seek an injunction in another class of cases carefully defined in the amended section 125 (a). Essentially, these are situations where a party, unable himself to sue, is harassed under color of a State statute or custom because he has protested against unconstitutional racial segregation or other denials of equal protection.

TITLE IV
     Like the administration bill, H.R. 7702 provides grants and technical assistance to States to aid them in achieving school desegregation. The Commissioner of Education will have discretionary control over the purse-strings. The list of purposes for which grants are authorized is enlarged so as to include the cost of employing additional schoolteachers, the cost of employing specialists to further orderly, peaceful desegregation, and other costs related to integration.
     Title IV of H.R. 7702, however, requires every school board to submit a comprehensive desegregation program. This program must promise first-step compliance by next September 1964, and must contain a detailed timetable for the desegregation of the entire school district. The Attorney General may sue to compel the school board to prepare a satisfactory plan. Once submitted, the plan becomes a local law in the school district, and the Attorney General may sue to secure its diligent implementation.
    Taken in composite, Titles III and IV thus pave out separate legal routes which the Attorney General can travel in order to achieve school desegregation.
     First: Inasmuch as school segregation is an instance of denial of equal protection, he may also sue to desegregate, but only upon receipt of a signed complaint.
     Second: Under Title III the Attorney General may intervene in a private action.
     Third: He may sue, under Title IV, to enforce compliance with the previously submitted desegregation plan. With no counterpart in the administration bill, this route would be the most potent and valuable form of legal action available to the Attorney General. He would not be compelled to prove the absence of deliberate speed to the satisfaction of an unsympathetic district judge; he need only indicate a discrepance between the submitted plan and the obvious fact. The process is swift and certain. 

TITLE V
     This title essentially duplicates the President's title IV, establishing a community relations service. This service would be called upon to meditate and improve communications between the Negro and white leaders of a troubled community.

TITLE VI
   H.R. 7702 adopts the broadened powers of the Civil Rights Commission as contained in the administration bill, and, in addition, gives the Civil Rights Commission permanent status. This was earlier proposed in the Republican bill (H.R. 3139). The administration bill would but extend the Commission's tenure another four years.

TITLE VII
     Under this title of the Kastenmeier bill a Commission on Equal Opportunity is established. This Commission is designed to be even more than on FEPC; it is an independent agency operating in those economic areas where unfair discriminatory practices commonly occur. The title catalogs examples of unfair practices. Included are aspects of job discrimination both by an employer in hiring or firing, and by Labor unions. It is also an unfair practice to discriminate in making loans, mortgages, or insurance policies. Real estate brokers may not discriminate, and publicly assisted housing must be rented out without regard to color. Public accommodations must be open to all races -- reinforcing title II; and economic sanctions must not be visited upon one exercising his right to vote -- supplementing title I. 
     The concerns of the Commission thus spread over much of the national economy. The administration bill, by way of contrast, merely gives a statutory base to the present President Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and that Committee has authority only over Govern-

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[illegible] President's bill, [illegible] chapter 307 (a) (c), his right to intervene is not limited to those cases where the party who commenced the private action is unable to continue it. Third. The Attorney General may seek an injunction in another class of cases carefully defined in the amended section 125 (a). Essentially, these are situations where a party, unable himself to sue, is harassed under color of a State statute or custom because he has protested against unconstitutional racial segregation or other denials of equal protection. TITLE IV Like the administration bill, H.R. 7702 provides grants and technical assistance to States to aid them in achieving school desegregation. The Commissioner of Education will have discretionary control over the purse-strings. The list of purposes for which grants are authorized is enlarged so as to include the cost of employing additional schoolteachers, the cost of employing specialists to further orderly, peaceful desegregation, and other costs related to integration. Title IV of H.R. 7702, however, requires every school board to submit a comprehensive desegregation program. This program must promise first-step compliance by next September 1964, and must contain a detailed timetable for the desegregation of the entire school district. The Attorney General may sue to compel the school board to prepare a satisfactory plan. Once submitted, the plan becomes a local law in the school district, and the Attorney General may sue to secure its diligent implementation. Taken in composite, Titles III and IV thus pave out separate legal routes which the Attorney General can travel in order to achieve school desegregation. First: Inasmuch as school segregation is an instance of denial of equal protection, he may also sue to desegregate, but only upon receipt of a signed complaint. Second: Under Title III the Attorney General may intervene in a private action. Third: He may sue, under Title IV, to enforce compliance with the previously submitted desegregation plan. With no counterpart in the administration bill, this route would be the most potent and valuable form of legal action available to the Attorney General. He would not be compelled to prove the absence of deliberate speed to the satisfaction of an unsympathetic district judge; he need only indicate a discrepance between the submitted plan and the obvious fact. The process is swift and certain. TITLE V This title essentially duplicates the President's title IV, establishing a community relations service. This service would be called upon to meditate and improve communications between the Negro and white leaders of a troubled community. TITLE VI H.R. 7702 adopts the broadened powers of the Civil Rights Commission as contained in the administration bill, and, in addition, gives the Civil Rights Commission permanent status. This was earlier proposed in the Republican bill (H.R. 3139). The administration bill would but extend the Commission's tenure another four years. TITLE VII Under this title of the Kastenmeier bill a Commission on Equal Opportunity is established. This Commission is designed to be even more than on FEPC; it is an independent agency operating in those economic areas where unfair discriminatory practices commonly occur. The title catalogs examples of unfair practices. Included are aspects of job discrimination both by an employer in hiring or firing, and by Labor unions. It is also an unfair practice to discriminate in making loans, mortgages, or insurance policies. Real estate brokers may not discriminate, and publicly assisted housing must be rented out without regard to color. Public accommodations must be open to all races -- reinforcing title II; and economic sanctions must not be visited upon one exercising his right to vote -- supplementing title I. The concerns of the Commission thus spread over much of the national economy. The administration bill, by way of contrast, merely gives a statutory base to the present President Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, and that Committee has authority only over Govern-