Civil Rights Leaders Appeal To President Bush
To Help Heal American Divide
Report on Bush civil rights record dispatched to White House

Washington – In an appeal for healing a nation deeply torn across a wide ideological divide, the leaders of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights today urged President Bush to forge a stronger commitment to embracing civil rights with actions, more than words.

Commission Chairperson Mary Frances Berry and Vice Chairperson Cruz Reynoso underscored their plea for “presidential leadership” by dispatching to the White House a copy of a report prepared by Civil Rights Commission staff titled Redefining Rights in America: The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration, 2001-2004. The 166-page report, considered for adoption in November, was rejected by the Republican-appointed members of the 8-member Commission. The report documented what it called “missed opportunities to win consensus on key civil rights issues” ranging from affirmative action, to fair housing, to immigration, to voting rights.

“The credibility and soundness of this review is grounded in careful research that concluded you have failed to exhibit leadership on pressing civil rights issues,” stated the letter from Berry and Reynoso accompanying the report. “Sadly, the spiraling demise of hope for social justice and healing has deepened over the past four years, largely due to a departure from and marginalization of long established civil rights priorities, practices and laws.”

Berry and Reynoso, whose terms both expire in January, have a combined total of more than three decades on the Commission. Their successors will be appointed by President Bush. Often called the civil rights watchdog, the Commission is a bipartisan, independent agency established to monitor executive and legislative branches of the federal government.

“The sharp divide on civil rights across our nation is a chasm of isolation that can only be mended by your demonstrated commitment to stand firmly on your promise to reunite the country,” the letter noted. “We urge you to embrace the core freedoms and values enshrined in our civil rights laws that when fully exercised help to make us whole but when abandoned, can tear at the seam of our national fabric.”

The draft report is posted on the Commission’s website www.usccr.gov.

Members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights include Chairperson Mary Frances Berry, Vice Chairperson Cruz Reynoso and Commissioners Jennifer C. Braceras, Christopher Edley Jr., Peter N. Kirsanow, Elsie M. Meeks, Russell G. Redenbaugh, and Abigail Thernstrom. Les Jin is Staff Director. Commission meetings are open to the media and general public.

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