Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

President’s Committee on Civil Rights Holds Public Hearing on Racial Discrimination

April 18, 1947
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

President Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights, in its first open hearing since its establishment last December, today heard reresentatives of various organizations urge that it request Congress for legislation to prevent discrimination in employment, in housing, in health, in education and to pass measures to reinforce federal protection of civil rights.

Lester Granger, executive secretary of the National Urban League, an organization working to improve the conditions under which the Negro population ##ves, told the committee that the field of civil service and other public employment and in housing and national health programs the Federal Governments could ##ke action to prevent discrimination without need for action by Congress. He ##cribed the Navy Department as one governmental agency which has broadened its special policies in recent years with beneficial results, but attacked some nine other Federal agencies which, he said, since the end of the war have reverted to discriminatory personnel practices.Walter White, executive secretary of the National Association for the Advance ## of Colored People, told the Committee that “Hitler’s spirit is living in ##rica today almost as viciously as during his heyday.” He pointed to the “vicious anti-Semitism” evidenced in the Congressional debate on David Lilienthal, in the mearing” of Jewish DP’s by the Meader report, and the lynching of Negroes in the south. The use of the Senate floor against discrimination is one of the best ways ## telling the world how the United States stands on the protection of minorities, ## said.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement