DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2) | Des Moines Register Article: "Still a Weak Spot in Civil Rights"

Transcribe
Translate

Dorothy Schramm newspaper clippings, 1949-1955 (folder 1 of 2)

Des Moines Register Article: "Still a Weak Spot in Civil Rights"

[[Handwriting]]
Please return to Schramm(?)
[[Article text]]
It's getting so that Iowans now make quite a fuss about any conspicuous racial or religious discrimination, whether it is within the law or not. But we still silently acquiesce in very widespread and open violation of the Iowa Civil Rights statute, which gives "all persons within this state full and equal enjoyment" of inns, eating houses, public conveyances, barbers shops, bathhouses, and places of amusement.
This law was passed with some enthusiasm in 1884, and strengthened by amendments in 1982 and in 1923.
A former student at the State University of Iowa, Robert E. Goostree, now teaching government and politics at the University of Maryland, made a study of how the law has fared, and the gist of the it was printed in the Iowa Law Review.
The law has reached the Iowa supreme court four times. It was twice nibbled at by interpretation, twice upheld as applicable to the case at hand. In the decade ending June, 1950, there were only 22 criminal prosecutions and 14 civil actions based on the law. Out of this, three persons paid fines and one paid $1 in damages.
Yet when Goostree sent questionnaires to our 99 county attorneys and half of them replied, nearly nine out of ten said that discrimination was not common in Iowa, and the rest said they didn't know.
Goostree recommends a stronger, more inclusive law with both criminal and civil penalties, and revocation of state licenses of habitual offenders. Yet in states where this ancient problem has been dealt with successfully, it has not been done with criminal and civil penalties at all. It has been done by the newer technique state and local Fair Employment laws which have been spreading since 1945, the technique of "compulsory education"--investigation followed by "conference, conciliation, and persuasion" in private, followed if necessary by a public hearing, followed if necessary by a cease and desist order.
This technique has been working so well that several states have turned over their old civil rights laws on public accommodations for enforcement in the new tactful and more effective way.

Saving...

[[Handwriting]] Please return to Schramm(?) [[Article text]] It's getting so that Iowans now make quite a fuss about any conspicuous racial or religious discrimination, whether it is within the law or not. But we still silently acquiesce in very widespread and open violation of the Iowa Civil Rights statute, which gives "all persons within this state full and equal enjoyment" of inns, eating houses, public conveyances, barbers shops, bathhouses, and places of amusement. This law was passed with some enthusiasm in 1884, and strengthened by amendments in 1982 and in 1923. A former student at the State University of Iowa, Robert E. Goostree, now teaching government and politics at the University of Maryland, made a study of how the law has fared, and the gist of the it was printed in the Iowa Law Review. The law has reached the Iowa supreme court four times. It was twice nibbled at by interpretation, twice upheld as applicable to the case at hand. In the decade ending June, 1950, there were only 22 criminal prosecutions and 14 civil actions based on the law. Out of this, three persons paid fines and one paid $1 in damages. Yet when Goostree sent questionnaires to our 99 county attorneys and half of them replied, nearly nine out of ten said that discrimination was not common in Iowa, and the rest said they didn't know. Goostree recommends a stronger, more inclusive law with both criminal and civil penalties, and revocation of state licenses of habitual offenders. Yet in states where this ancient problem has been dealt with successfully, it has not been done with criminal and civil penalties at all. It has been done by the newer technique state and local Fair Employment laws which have been spreading since 1945, the technique of "compulsory education"--investigation followed by "conference, conciliation, and persuasion" in private, followed if necessary by a public hearing, followed if necessary by a cease and desist order. This technique has been working so well that several states have turned over their old civil rights laws on public accommodations for enforcement in the new tactful and more effective way.