Word: celler
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...bill was an expanded version of the Administration's own civil rights package. The Administration measure had been taken in hand by Judiciary Committee Chairman Emanuel Celler, a vociferously civil righteous Brooklyn Democrat. Also sitting as chairman of a civil rights subcommittee, Celler made one personal addition after another to the Administration bill. His version expanded the public accommodations section to forbid discrimination by any business operating under state or local "authorization, permission or license." It authorized the Attorney General to intervene and bring suit on behalf of any individual to prevent the denial of any constitutional right...
Language & Legalism. As sent to the full Judiciary Committee, the bill simply went too far. It antagonized not only Southerners but many Republicans and moderate Democrats who questioned its sweeping grants of federal authority. Celler also angered Ohio Republican William McCulloch, ranking minority member of the civil rights subcommittee, by ramming through the changes without any effort toward bipartisan consultation...
...civil rights troubleshooter, it fell to Bobby Kennedy to put the bill back on the track. Painfully aware that he would bring down the wrath of civil rights professionals, Bobby went to the Judiciary Committee to plead that the bill be diluted to passable proportions. He carefully avoided challenging Celler's bill on principle, skillfully confined himself to matters of language and legalisms. The new public accommodations section, he said, was "unclear," might extend federal regulation to "all businesses which a state does not affirmatively ban." He questioned the vast scope of powers granted the Attorney General, pointed...
...Inevitable Outbursts. Manny Celler got the message. Late in the week he promised to "put aside my own feelings" and "exert every effort" toward reporting a compromise version of the bill from his committee within two weeks. Inevitably, there were some angry outbursts. Clarence Mitchell, Washington director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, cried that "there is no reason for this kind of sellout." The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an association of top civil rights leaders, sent a three-page letter to Celler urging him to ignore Bobby's advice. For all that...
...Washington a House Judiciary subcommittee approved its own version of President Kennedy's civil rights bill. It expanded and even liberalized the Administration's package. Under the leadership of Brooklyn's civil-rights drumbeating Congressman Emanuel Celler, the committee added a provision for a powerful FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Commission); ballooned the public-accommodations clause beyond Administration-set limits to include almost every establishment offering goods and services to the public; greatly expanded the injunctive powers requested for the Attorney General; boosted voting-rights guarantees to include not only antidiscrimination in federal elections but in state voting...