Panel Says Bush Policies Foster Racial Conflicts

Although President Bush has made more progress on the road to racial equality than his predecessor, many of his policies have contributed to an increase in racial tensions and conflicts, the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights charged Wednesday.

The bipartisan panel of 14 former government officials commended Bush for working to enforce voting rights and fair housing laws. But it said that the Administration needs to improve its record in other areas.

“We do not feel that the nation has received the kind of leadership that is necessary if there is to be a vigorous implementation of our civil rights laws,” said Arthur Flemming, chairman of the commission and former head of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Citing growing concern about police brutality in the wake of the Rodney G. King beating in Los Angeles and an increase in racist incidents on college campuses, Flemming said: “The situation is much more serious in terms of racial tensions and conflicts than it was two years ago.”

The commission sharply criticized Bush’s veto last year of the Civil Rights Act of 1990, which would have reversed a series of Supreme Court rulings that made it more difficult to file or win job bias lawsuits. A similar bill will be considered by Congress again this year.

Frankie Freeman, a St. Louis lawyer and member of the commission, accused Bush of employing “the politics of division and recrimination” in vetoing the act and in characterizing it as a “quota bill.”

In a report released Wednesday, the commission said that much of the nation’s minority population “remains racially isolated, cut off from equal opportunities for education, jobs and services and afflicted by the most serious kinds of health and social problems.”

Flemming urged the President to establish programs giving minorities and other disadvantaged groups greater access to education, employment and housing and to create a task force to address racial conflicts.

White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said that he had not read the commission’s report but disputed its central allegations. “I think we have a very strong record on civil rights (and) that the President is personally committed to progress in civil rights,” he said.

Responding to the charge that Bush unfairly maligned last year’s Civil Rights Act, Fitzwater said that the bill was vetoed “because we believed it was a quota bill. We still believe it is a quota bill.”

Although the bill did not endorse hiring quotas, Bush has argued that many employers would adopt them anyway rather than try to defend themselves against discrimination lawsuits. The White House has introduced a bill that it says would avoid the problem.

“I think it is just plain wrong to suggest that the veto of a quota bill diminishes our interest and concern for civil rights,” Fitzwater said. “And I would say to the commission: ‘Get behind the President’s civil rights bill and pass it.’ ”