STATEMENT OF WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM-U.S. SECTION The U.S. Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, in keeping with its concern that the task of securing equal rights and opportunities for all citizens of the United States has yet to be completed, wishes to affirm its support of the proposed Civil Rights Act of 1966 (H.R. 14765/ S. 3296). We urge that the Congress not delay in passing this important legislation which will rectify inequalities in the areas of non-discriminatory jury selection, desegregation of public and educational facilities, protection against interference with persons attempting to exercise their civil rights, and a national non-discriminatory policy in the sale and rental of all housing without exception. In addition to the points covered in the proposed Civil Rights Act, we should like to encourage the adoption of the following amendments in order to make the Act as effective and far-reaching as possible: Under Titles I and II: 1. a more automatic method of instituting procedures for ending jury discrimination, analogous in principal to the "automatic trigger" for federal registrars set up by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in states or political subdivisions where the standards set forth in this Act are not being met; 2. the abolition of the literacy test (i.e., the necessity to read and write) as a requirement for jury selection; 3. the use of chance selection from a sample that includes a representative cross-section of the population of the judicial district instead of the use of voting lists in the selection of state and federal juries, because there are many areas where only a minority of the potential voting-age Negro population is in fact registered to vote; Under Title III: 4. in areas where racial imbalance in the schools persists, the burden should be placed on the school board to justify as reasonable, fair, and not based on race, the pupil assignment method it employs; Under Title IV: 5. enforcement of the fair housing provision by an administrative agency so that the burden of undertaking court action in cases of violation is not placed on the aggrieved person, who is often not in a position to pursue court action on his own; Under Title V: 6. the establishment of a new agency, the Idemnification Board, which, after investigation, could make monetary awards to persons injured or to the kin of those murdered while exercising their civil rights; 7. the authorization to Federal law enforcement agents, such as Federal Marshals and the FBI, of the use of all their legal powers to prevent, as well as to investigate, offenses in violation of this bill; 8. the authority to the Civil Service Commission for the removal of any state or local police official who misuses or abuses his office by intentionally causing injury or death to another because of his race or color or who fails knowingly to prevent such acts by others; A new title on Equal Employment Opportunity: 9. the extension to state and local government employees of the coverage of Title VII, the Equal Employment Section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, to insure the integration of the staffs of courts, police stations, and other institutions of justice; also the incorporation into this Act of the amendments to Title VII, already adopted by the House, giving the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the powers other regulatory agencies have to issue cease-and-desist orders and to enforce their laws more vigorously; A new title on Voter Registration: 10. for those areas in which discrimination in voter registration persists, a more effective means to insure the sending in of federal registrars and examiners, as well as the use of door-to-door registration. As a member of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the WILPF recognizes that the Leadership Conference is also urging passage of the administration bill, with four amendments (included in our presentation as numbers 1, 5, 6 and 9), but our organization still feels that the other six amendments should also be included. We understand that some organizations feel that the political reality is that the Congress will not approve of all of these amendments at this time, but the WILPF believes that the Judiciary Committees of the Senate and House should face up to these still unmet needs, and therefore we urge their inclusion. ARIZONA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS, RESOLUTION Whereas, the Arizona Association of Relators has officially gone on record as being opposed to racial, religious or ethnic discrimination in all areas, particularly in the ownership and enjoyment of real property, and are committed to that end, and Whereas the Arizona Association of Realtors has always espoused the right of all men, regardless of race, color or creed, to contract for, own and enjoy their homes, upon which right our great country was founded and has prospered, and Whereas the principles of freedom to contract, by all our citizens, is seriously endangered by certain legislation now introduced into the Congress of the United States, and Whereas the right of our citizens to own, enjoy and contract for private real property has been the main bulwark in our battle against Communism, it being a fact that nowhere on earth has a country fallen under Communist domination until that country had first deprived its people of those rights: Now therefore, be it Resolved, That the Arizona Association of Realtors considers Title IV, H.R. 14765 as introduced into the House of Representatives, and Title IV, S. 3296 as introduced into the U.S. Senate, to be abhorrent to the fundamental truths upon which our democracy has endured and prospered; be it further Resolved, That the right of freedom to contract is sacred to all men and legislation designed to deprive any citizen of that right is not in the public interest and is detrimental to the long range interests of minority groups. Therefore, the Arizona Association of Realtors, in the interest of justice for all, strongly urges the defeat of Title IV, in both H.R. 14765 and S. 3296. Unanimously adopted on this, the twenty-first day of May, One Thousand Nine Hundred and Sixty-six, A.D. Attest: KEITH WINN, President. W. J. B. SCHIMFESSEL, Secretary. CITIZENS LEGISLATIVE ACTION COMMITTEE, Hon. Senator SAM J. ERVIN, Jr., Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR: The Citizens Legislative Action Committee of Illinois does hereby wish to notify you that we are against H.R. 14765 (Federal "Forced Housing" Law), especially Part IV of the suggested legislation, which tramples on the rights of the owner of private property, and makes it unlawful for a property owner to refuse to sell, rent, or lease said property to someone not of his own choice. A bill such as H.R. 14765 is, in our judgment, unfair, unconstitutional, and would subject the citizens and private property owners to the loss of his basic inherent rights through the exercise of a Police System similar to those being exercised in Communistic Governments that take personal privileges and rights away from individual citizens. This Federal "Forced Housing" Law purports to grant rights and privileges to one group by destroying the constitutional rights and privileges of others by force of law. |