The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith today criticised the United States Congress for its “highly disappointing record” in regard to civil rights action in 1959.
Reviewing the national picture in the field of civil rights during 1959, Henry Edward Schulta, national chairman of the ADL, declared that congressional members of both major parties “share responsibility for Congress’ failure to take acutely needed action. The two-year extension of the life of the Federal Commission on Civil Rights was the year’s “solitary advance” in the field. Mr. Schultz stated.
Mr. Schulta decried the influence of two key committees whose chairmen were seen by the ADL head as “staunch opponents of civil rights legislation.” He named, as leaders of the anti-civil rights bloc, Sen, James Eastland, of Mississippi, head of the Senate Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Howard Smith, of Virginia, chairman of the House Rules Committee.
Mr. Schulta warned that problems in the fields of education, voting, housing, and employment are “so pressing that they require congressional remedies as early as possible in 1960. They cannot wait for the national party conventions in the summer to be embalmed in party platforms.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
