Civil Rights Group Seeks a 'National Conversation'

Members and Activists Sat Out the Federal Commission's Meeting

Washington

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights yesterday launched what its leader ambitiously called “the start of a national conversation on formulating a new civil rights agenda for the 21st century,” but without significant input from mainstream civil rights organizations and some commission members.

The low profile of those stakeholders speaks to the once-influential group’s uncertain status under the administration of President Barack Obama. Created by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Washington-based commission is currently headed by Gerald A. Reynolds, a Republican who was appointed six years ago by former President George W. Bush. Of the commission’s eight members, four are Republicans and two are registered Independents.

The two Democratic commissioners boycotted the Sept. 14 event and prominent civil rights groups did not serve on any of the day’s panels. The group’s Republican vice chair, Harvard University historian Abigail Thernstrom, also did...