To Safeguard These Rights
Safeguarding Democracy
The Workmen’s Circle Call | Vol 1. No. 5 | November 1947
Editorial Comment
It is not new to us that even our great democracy is sorely deficient in safeguarding the rights of those large masses of our people whom we label incorrectly "minority groups." We awaken periodically to the realization that no matter how much we have done to implement our constitution's bill of rights we seem to be right back where we started. It is good, therefore, for our collective conscience and our inner urging for a better world to be shocked into action by any responsible group which opens up the festered body of our social structure to point to the wounds which must be healed.
This has been done for us by the President's Committee on Civil Rights in its recent report. This extensive and intensive analysis of what ails us is all the more important because it carries with it the implied approval of the President. We are not aware whether President Truman accepted the findings or not, but this we know — he could not have expected such a committee to whitewash existing denials of our basic human rights. The document deals bluntly with many -»f the most complex and controversial political and social issues before the nation today and urges action NOW to guarantee the same rights to every person regardless of who he is, where he lives, or what his racial, religious or national origins are." Entitled "To Secure These Rights" — a phrase from the Declaration of Independence — it recommends the creation of a permanent nationwide system of guardianship for the civil rights of Americans, in which the federal, state and local governments, the Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary , and private groups and organizations shall have a part. A sustained drive ahead is necessary, says the Committee, for reasons of "conscience, of self-interest, and of survival in a threatening world. Or to put it another way, we have a moral reason, an economic reason, and an international reason for believing that the time for action is now."
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“A long-term campaign of public education to inform the people of the civil rights to which they are entitled and which they owe to one another. “The most important educational task in this field,” says the report, “is to give the public living examples of civil rights in operation.””
The document deals bluntly with many -»f the most complex and controversial political and social issues before the nation today and urges action NOW to guarantee the same rights to every person regardless of who he is, where he lives, or what his racial, religious or national origins are." Entitled "To Secure These Rights" — a phrase from the Declaration of Independence — it recommends the creation of a permanent nationwide system of guardianship for the civil rights of Americans, in which the federal, state and local governments, the Congress, the Executive Branch, and the Judiciary , and private groups and organizations shall have a part. A sustained drive ahead is necessary, says the Committee, for reasons of "conscience, of self-interest, and of survival in a threatening world. Or to put it another way, we have a moral reason, an economic reason, and an international reason for believing that the time for action is now." F OUR essential rights, they insist, must be strengthened and made equally available to all Americans: (1) The right to safety and security of the person; (2) the right of citizenship and its privileges; (3) the right to freedom of conscience and expression; (4) the right to equality of opportunity. Among the thirty-five recommendations, the Committee includes the following proposals: Enactment of a federal antilynching law providing for penalties up to a 20-year prison term and $10,000 fine. Enactment of a new federal statute specifically directed at police brutality and related crimes. Action by Congress or the polltax states to end the levying of polltaxes as a condition of voting. The granting of suffrage by the states of New Mexico and Arizona to their Indian citizens. Modification of the federal naturalization laws to permit the granting of citizenship without regard to the race, color, or national origin of the applicants.
The repeal by states of laws dis-criminating against' aliens who are ineligible for citizenship because of race, color or national origin. Passage of a law to end immediately all discrimination and segregation in the armed services. A long-term campaign of public education to inform the people of the civil rights to which they are entitled and which they owe to one another. "The most important educational task in this field," says the report, "is to give the public living examples of civil rights in operation." Enactment of a federal fair employment practice law against discrimination in employment. As a basic pattern of federal and state machinery for the advancement of American democracy the report calls for the creation of a permanent federal commission on civil rights; the reorganization and enlargement by the Department of Justice of its civil rights section; the establishment by state governments of law enforcement agencies comparable to the federal civil rights section and of permanent commissions on civil rights. In other words, this group of prominent Americans is convinced that the civil rights of the people can be strengthened quickly and effectively by the normal processes of constitutional government. Now the question before us is whether this report will obtain the necessary support to overcome the objections of the anti-demo-cratic elements in our national life. Though other issues are pressing for attention now we want to know when this strengthening process will begin! The President has stated that the need for an American charter for human freedom was never greater than at this moment in history. We agree — emphatically! The task is cut out clearly for him and for all of us.