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2 unusual facts about United States Commission on Civil Rights


United States Commission on Civil Rights

Abigail Thernstrom, Vice-Chair (R) – Manhattan Institute political scientist and former member of the Massachusetts Board of Education (appointed by Congress, 2001; switched registration to "Independent" when appointed Vice-Chair by President Bush, 2004; switched registration back to Republican and reappointed to USCCR by President Bush in 2007; term will expire in 2013).

As then-Senator and Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson put it, the Commission’s task is to "gather facts instead of charges." "It can sift out the truth from the fancies; and it can return with recommendations which will be of assistance to reasonable men."


Free South Africa Movement

The movement began when Randall Robinson, Executive Director of TransAfrica, Mary Frances Berry, Commissioner of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, D.C. Congressman Walter Fauntroy and Georgetown University law professor Eleanor Holmes Norton met with South African Ambassador at his embassy to highlight human rights abuses in South Africa.


see also

Mary Berry

Mary Frances Berry (born 1938), former vice chair (1980–1982), commissioner (1982–1993), and chairperson (1993–2004) of the United States Commission on Civil Rights