Rights Leaders Seek Meeting With Reagan
President Reagan was asked Tuesday to meet with the nation’s civil rights leaders, who are trying to prevent a veto of legislation to restore full anti-discrimination protection to women, minorities, the handicapped and the elderly.
The request came in a letter from the chairman and executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, who said that Reagan has rarely met with civil rights leaders.
“Now is the time for reconciliation, not for confrontation,” said Chairman Benjamin L. Hooks and Executive Director Ralph G. Neas, who asked for a meeting “as soon as possible.”
The leadership conference includes all of the major civil rights groups. There was no immediate response from the White House.
Reagan has threatened to veto the Civil Rights Restoration Act, which was passed by the House and Senate by large margins.
The civil rights leaders said the legislation would restore full federal civil rights protections in public and private institutions and state and local governments receiving federal money. Those protections were limited by a 1984 Supreme Court decision involving Grove City College in Pennsylvania.
Reagan has said the bill would expand federal jurisdiction beyond pre-Grove City limits.
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