Mr. CREECH. Would a short report such as your interim report on Mississippi, be reviewed by each member of the Commission who signed it personally? Dr. HANNAH. By all the members of the Commission. This was entered into very seriously, the nature of the report was understood by the Commission, and it was very carefully reviewed by all the Commissioners and there were no dissents. Senator ERVIN. Since I called attention to the change in population of the District, I would like to put into the record these figures about the number of white children enrolled in the public schools of the District of Columbia. In 1930-31 session there were 51,367, in 1940-41, there were 51,547, the 1950-51 session there were 46,763, in the 1960-61 session there were 24,982. In 1961-62 there were 23,762, and in 1962-63 there were 22,280. The number of nonwhite children enrolled in the public schools of the District of Columbia for 1930-31 was 27,091, in 1940-41, 36,263, in 1950-51, 47,980, in 1960-61, 97,897, in 1961-62, 104,702, in 1962-63, 112,095. These facts would indicate to me that most or rather a considerable number of the white people who have children of school age have moved out of the District. Thank you, Dr. Hannah. Dr. HANNAH. Thank you, Senator. Senator ERVIN. I hope we haven't detained you too long. Dr. HANNAH. I have enjoyed it and appreciate your courtesy. Mr. CREECH. The next witness will be Dr. Duncan Howlett, a member of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Senator ERVIN. Glad to have you with us, Doctor. STATEMENT OF DR. DUNCAN HOWLETT, CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ADVISORY COMMITTEE, CIVIL RIGHTS COMMISSION Dr. HOWLETT. Thank you, Senator. You have my written statement, and if it is agreeable with you, instead of my pondering through it again and reading it, I would like to comment on it. Senator ERVIN. Yes. That will be permissible, and let the record show that immediately after testimony of the witness, that the written statement will be printed in full in the record. Dr. HOWLETT. Thank you. I am Duncan Howlet, Minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian, and I am Chairman of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. My reason for coming before you is based on my own experience: my experience as Chairman of one of the advisory committees that works under the U.S. Commission. I took on this post because of my work as minister of an integrated church. That is in a neighborhood which is changing very rapidly, I came to see the importance of doing something to assist a downtrodden portion of our society. When I became chairman of the committee, in order to encompass the work that was before us, I divided the committee into four sub committees: one on housing (that is, metropolitan housing for the whole area); under the dean of Georgetown University, one on the centennary of the Emancipation Proclamation under Henry K. Willard, Treasurer of the American Security Trust Co. here in the city; one on employment practices under Ben Segal of IUE; and the fourth on the administration of justice under Dean Patricia Harris of Howard University. What I would like to do is to illustrate my experience through the work of one of the subcommittees, the one on fair employment practices. We had what we called an open meeting on the 27th and 28th of February and on the 1st of March. Actually it was conducted somewhat as these meetings are, in the form of a hearing, but we had no authority to summon witnesses. It was entirely voluntary, and so we called it an open meeting. But eight of us sat behind a long table as you do, and listened to people who are citizens of our community come before us and talk about the employment situation as it exists here in the District and as it applies to the Negro. We did that for 3 days. What I would like to get over to you, if I can, is the significance of this approach to the problem of civil rights. In the first place, the impact on the community of these hearings excuse me, of this open meeting-was considerable. The newspapers gave it great attention. There were detailed reports of the statements that were made before us, as a result of which people learned what they had not known before, namely the extraordinary depravation that the Negro is subjected to, and the problems that he faces in trying to find employment for himself adequate to his needs. In the second place, and I would say this was even more important, that was the impact of the statement making process on the men who came before us to make the statements. Most men are men of integrity, conscience and honesty, and more than one man found himself before us reading a pious statement that his organization or group had made with regard to employment practices. In the course of the interchange of question and answer and the other statements that had been made before us, it became perfectly clear that there was a wide discrepancy between his pious purpose and what was actually going on in the organization he represented. This was true of both employers and the labor unions. And I felt myself that this impact upon these men was of itself important. It caused them to realize that there was more of a problem here than they had seen until they undertook to make a statement on it under these false circumstances. And thirdly, I would say that it was of importance to me personally. I came out of those meetings a different person than when I went in. I began, as I said, because I believe in the importance of this problem, but I certainly had no conception of what the Negro seeking employment is up against in the District of Columbia, until I had heard these statements. You might say, "All right, you will perhaps change it as a result of this, but one person really doesn't make much difference." But I find myself frequently in a position where I am able to express my convictions and my observations to people. Most recently, for example, on a TV documentary, which apparently was widely viewed from all I hear. I enabled, I think, the community to learn what it ought to know through the activities of this advisory committee to the Commission on Civil Rights; so I would just summarize my comments by saying this in conclusion: that I think that this is the American way to go about tackling a very difficult problem, to arouse the conscience of people, to let them see what the problem is, to gather facts, to point the moral, to call for action, and by virtue of all this, to get at it and to do it through volunteers, none of whom are paid anything, all of whom give their time for what they believe to be right. Senator ERVIN. Doctor, the employment problem in the District is very bad, isn't it? Dr. HOWLETT. Not overall, but in the Negro community it is very bad; yes. Senator ERVIN. Most of them are unskilled, or a large proportion of them are unskilled. Dr. HOWLETT. Yes, they are. Senator ERVIN. I think this is not peculiar to the District, but over the country generally. In the old days when we did so much more by hand labor, there was a larger percentage of jobs for people of that kind who have been eliminated through automation and use of machinery. Dr. HOWLETT. Our country is changing very rapidly. Senator ERVIN. In my part of the country people used to work on the roads with mules and these little drags. Now a big bulldozer comes along, and in an hour does more work than many men could have done in a day. Dr. HOWLETT. Yes. Senator ERVIN. That is one of the tragic facts particularly for the people of the Negro race, that they fall into unskilled classifications. Dr. HOWLETT. Not because they are Negroes but because they are poor and unskilled. Senator ERVIN. Doctor, we appreciate very much your appearing before us. Your entire statement will be printed in the record at this point. (The document referred to follows:) STATEMENT OF DR. DUNCAN HOWLETT, MINISTER, ALL SOULS CHURCH, UNITARIAN, AND CHAIRMAN, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ADVISORY COMMITTEE TO THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS As minister of All Souls Church, Unitarian, an integrated church, I have been increasingly concerned since my arrival in Washington in 1958, with the problem of race relations in the Nation's Capital. A serious problem exists here as in other parts of the country, and it is growing more acute every day. The Negro population of this city has been squeezed into what amounts to a ghetto. We have made progress in our race relations but we have not yet come to grips with the underlying causes of the poverty, slum conditions, and juvenile delinquency that exist here, due in no small part to the de facto segregation that prevails. Housing remains as segregated as ever; employment opportunities for Negroes are still severely circumscribed; and the schools in the District of Columbia, whose pupil population is now approximately 85 percent Negro, are incredibly overburdened and underfinanced. This situation is both disgraceful and dangerous. Surely we would wish to remedy it even if Washington were not the Capital of the United States of America. Since it is the Capital not only of the United States, but in a sense, of the entire free world, it is inconceivable that in the face of it we can stand idly by any longer. It was my deep sense of concern for this problem that prompted me to accept the chairmanship of the District of Columbia Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights a year ago. Although already overcommitted to community causes, I accepted this additional post because I believed that a group of citizen volunteers acting under the aegis of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights could make an essential and constructive contribution to the problem. I have not been disappointed. In the year that our committee has been in operation a subcommittee on housing, working jointly with the Advisory Committees of Maryland and Virginia, sponsored a meeting on the President's Executive order on equal housing opportunity; a special committee on employment held a 3-day public conference on equal employment opportunity in the District of Columbia; and a special committee on the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation sponsored a number of appropriate commemorative events. In addition, our committee endorsed the findings and recommendations of the Commission's report on housing in the Washington area. But we have only begun. We have served a beneficial purpose, I believe by bringing to light and pinpointing facts regarding racial discrimination of which our community has always been vaguely aware. We have helped to separate fact from fiction. But all this is preliminary. Finding facts may be a necessary prerequisite to action, but it is not action, and nothing less than direct action is needed now. We can continue our work and move from talking to doing only if Congress sees fit to extend the life of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. An extension of more than 2 years is an urgent necessity if our District of Columbia Advisory Committee is ever to get beyond the factfinding and recommending stage. Since our Committee consists entirely of volunteers, all of whom maintain very heavy schedules, our progress is necessarily slow. Our plans, therefore, must be long range. If we are to fulfill our obligations to the Commission and the District of Columbia, we must be permitted to plan more than 2 years ahead. Our experience here in the District of Columbia is no doubt typical of most if not all of the advisory committees to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and this is my reason for coming before your today. The Commission relies heavily upon the work of the advisory committees. Many of them have already distinguished themselves and performed an important service for the Commission. This work must go on. And what is true of the advisory committees, is even more true of the Commission itself. It must be continued, not only for the sake of advisory committee programs, but even more, for the sake of its own program. I therefore urge that the U.S. Senate will enact S. 1117 extending the Commission on Civil Rights for 4 more years. I would also like to voice support for the clearinghouse and technical assistance functions which the bill would give to the Commission. The State advisory committees should, as I have already insisted, do more than merely gather facts and report them to the Commission and the public at large. If the Commission were given a clearinghouse function and were authorized to render technical assistance to public and private organizations seeking such assistance, the advisory committees, as well as the Commission would be enabled to offer assistance where needed. Here in the District of Columbia and in the 50 States of the Union, we need a clearinghouse such as that suggested by President Kennedy and incorporated in S. 1117. As a participating member of the Civil Rights Commission structure, may I commend Senator Hart for introducing this bill. May I urge you to recommend it to the Senate, and may I take this opportunity to express my thanks to the Congress for the creation of the Civil Rights Commission in the first instance. Mr. CREECH. The next witness is Mr. Allan Howe, representing the Young Democratic Clubs of America. STATEMENT OF ALLAN T. HOWE, PRESIDENT, YOUNG DEMOCRATIC CLUBS OF AMERICA Mr. Howe. Mr. Chairman, I am Allan T. Howe of Salt Lake City, Utah, president of the Young Democratic Clubs of America. I appreciate this opportunity to appear before this committee to present the views of our organization on Senate bill 1117. This proposal, sponsored by Senator Hart and some 30 other Senators of both parties, embodies the President's recommendations concerning the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The President proposed that the Commission "serve as a national civil rights clearinghouse providing information, advice, and technical assistance to any requesting agency, private or public" and that its life be extended for a term of at least 4 more years. This is in accord with official positions taken by our organization. Since its inception in 1957, the Commission on Civil Rights has investigated and issued a series of reports on denials of equal protection of the laws in education, voting, housing, employment, and administration of justice. These reports have been based on extensive public hearings held in all parts of our Nation, on the investigation of specific complaints and on thorough and comprehensive field studies. The statistics have been gathered, the facts documented, and the recommendations for remedial action submitted to Congress and the President. Several of the Commission's recommendations have been prepared in legislative form and are now pending before Congress. The sixthgrade literacy test voting bill and the bill providing for Federal technical and financial assistance for desegregating school districts are two of the Commission's legislative recommendations which the President has urged Congress to adopt. But beyond recommendations for congressional action, the Commission has effectively advised the executive branch on a whole series of remedial policies which have furthered equality of opportunity for all Americans. I would like to refer to only a few of the advances made by this administration which were possible by the study and recommendations of the Commission. The 1961 education report of the Commission spotlighted several areas where Federal programs were operating so as to encourage discrimination. Under the impacted school aid program which makes vast sums available to school districts for the education of the dependents of military personnel, there had been no effort to assure these children would be afforded the opportunity to attend desegregated schools as required by the Constitution. In fact in community after community, our servicemen, called upon to defend, protect, and uphold the Constitution, were forced to send their children to segregated schools, operated in violation of the Constitution and with the aid of Federal funds. After the Commission focused public attention on this situation, the former Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare announced that beginning in September 1963 segregated schools would not be considered "suitable" for on-base children and that nonsegregated on-base education will be provided. In implementing this ruling, the Departments of Health, Education, and Welfare, and Justice have conducted a series of negotiations with school |