Press Releases
Several press releases should be mentioned as illustrations of some of the
Commission's work which involved matters of general public interest. In
many of these situations, the Commission came into the limelight after or
while the matters were aired in the press.
Community Tension in Waterloo: The first such report involved a Commission
fact-finding investigation of the events surrounding the death of a Negro
in a Waterloo jail in the summer of 1966. The primary role of the Commission
in the midst of this difficult situation -- which was rife with pitched
emotions, scattered racial disturbances, and community concern -- was to
keep an open line of communication between city officials and Negro leaders.
The Commission's subsequent public report emphasized both the need for positive
community efforts to combat general insensitivity toward Negroes
and the need for cooperation among public agencies and Negro leaders in
improving communication and general conditions. Specific projects recommended
to the city included such things as staff and budget for the city
human relations commission, improvements in Negro areas in city facilities
such as paving and lighting, stricter enforcement of sanitation ordinances
in Negro areas, active recruitment of Negro policemen and firemen, and inservice
training on intergroup relations for police officers.
Questionable Resignation of Public Employee: The Commission was requested
to investigate the circumstances surrounding the resignation of the manager
of the Youth Opportunity Center in Des Moines in August of 1966. Following
a preliminary investigation, the Commission filed a formal complaint against
the Iowa Employment Security Commission, alleging that the former manager
had been pressured into resigning because of his activities relating to
apprenticeship programs. He earlier had made public statements reflecting
on the insensitivity of local unions to the problem of the lack of nonwhites
in apprenticeship programs.
The Civil Rights Commission made a finding of no probable cause, after a
lengthy investigation. The Commission's public report noted that the resignation
"resulted in large part from (the ex-manager's) public statements regarding
the union." But the question of responsibility, involving motive and
intent, could not be accurately pinpointed. The individual involved was
not interested in regaining his former job, and the Commission noted that
there was "insufficient reason to proceed."
"Infidels" in State Employment: The Commission elected to release
its official position in a matter of public interest involving religious
qualifications for state employment. Public attention had been called specifically
to a policy in at least two state agencies of excluding "infidels"
from employment. The Commission's public statement, issued in January of
1967, noted: "Iowa law quite clearly prohibits public officials from
using any religious test as a qualification for any office or public trust."
Practices singled out as unlawful included the requesting of information
about religious affiliation as a prerequisite to hiring, as well as dismissals
based upon religious affiliation or belief or lack of it. The Commission's
conclusion was based upon provisions of Iowa law, the Iowa and federal constitutions,
and United States Supreme Court interpretations of the federal constitution.
Treatment of Foreign Visitors: A formal complaint was filed by an African
visitor, who alleged that because of his race he was denied equal access
to a place of public accommodation. The complainant -- a student at a four-year
college in that city -- allegedly had been physically abused and forcibly
evicted from a restaurant following an argument with the owners of the restaurant.
The Commission investigation showed that he had been a customer at that
restaurant on a number
of previous occasions, and that he maintained a charge account there. Moreover,
other non-whites had been served there.
Lacking sufficient evidence that racial discrimination had occurred in a
place of public accommodation, the Commission made a finding of no probable
cause. Unable to resolve
the widely-conflicting versions of who or what provoked the argument, the
Commission recognized that the matter posed a question for civil action,
if the complainant chose to take further action. Concerned, however, with
the impolite treatment accorded the complainant, the Commission wrote a
stern letter to the respondents reprimanding them for "a rather disturbing
mishandling of a situation that could possibly have international consequences.''
The letter continued: "While there was not discrimination, there certainly
appeared to have been callous disregard of the respect owed to any person,
much less a foreign visitor to our state." The
Commission stated in another letter to the chief of police in that city
that it is "abundantly clear to us that the whole incident could have
been avoided by a prompt, fair settling of the matter then and there by
the policeman," who had investigated the matter shortly after the complainant
allegedly had been struck. The letter continued: "The decision
of the policeman to procrastinate, perhaps even withdraw, was in our opinion
a primary factor in elevating what would have been a minor incident into
a near-major community disaster."
The Commission took the occasion, via public release of these two letters
during the summer of 1967, to call the public's attention to the possible
international overtones which local matters might provoke. In this instance,
it was pointed out that the foreign visitor was being educated here, and
would soon be going back to his native country of Kenya to assume a prominent
public position. Any signs of racial discrimination or insensitivity against
him in Iowa certainly amounted to a poor example of "good will"
and to a setback for worldly brotherhood, the Commission implied.
Election Bias Rejected: In an event attracting more limited public attention, the Commission publicly commended voters in the West Bend Community School District for overwhelmingly rejecting what the Commission termed "an appeal to religious bias" in a school board election. A preliminary Commission investigation confirmed that an anonymous note had been sent to most non-Catholic voters in the district urging them to elect suggested write-in candidates, who were Protestants. The two incumbents -- both Roman Catholics -were elected by a nine-to- one margin.