Fight on Corporation Discrimination Endangered by S.e.c. Rule

The fight for the correction of discriminatory practices by corporations in the United States would be seriously set back by a proposed amendment to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules which would make it unnecessary for corporations to include in a proxy statement a proposal submitted by a shareholder “primarily for the purpose of promoting general economic, political, racial, religious, social or similar causes,” the American Jewish Congress said today in a memorandum sent to the S.E.C.

Pointing out that the proposed amendment to S.E.C. rules is capable of interpretation in a manner which would place undue and unnecessary obstacles in the way of eliminating certain discriminatory and undemocratic practices by corporations, the memorandum requested the S.E.C. to reject it. If the Commission adopts the proposed amendment, the memorandum said, it would “in effect be saying that segregation is a subject on which the corporation ought not to act, even though it has power to do so.”