And Justice For All

The National Constitution Center welcomes Mary Frances Berry for a discussion on the civil rights movement.

Berry tells of the Commission’s founding in 1957 by President Eisenhower, in response to burgeoning civil rights protests and how it was designed to be an independent bipartisan Federal agency—made up of six members, with no more than three from one political party, free of interference from Congress and presidents—beholden to no government body, with full subpoena power, and free to decide what it would investigate and report on.  Berry writes that the Commission, rather than producing reports that would gather dust on the shelves, began to hold hearings even as it was under attack from Southern segregationists. She also writes about how the Commission’s hearings and reports helped the nonviolent protest movement prick the conscience of the nation then on the road to dismantling segregation, beginning with the battles in Montgomery and Little Rock, the sit-ins and freedom rides and the March on Washington.