Word: commissioners
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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More than 3000 other people turned to the quasi-judical body last year to seek redress against a variety of organizations for unfair employment, housing and public accommodations practices. The commission has power akin to that of a lower court, it can award damages and order an organization to change...
Created in 1946 as the Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC), the commission was expected to fill the gap left by the demise of a similar federal program in the aftermath of World War II. Previously--in 1943--the state had approved the Massachusetts Committee on Racial and Religious Understanding in...
"This committee was the direct ancestor of the MCAD," writes Leon H. Mayhew in his 1968 study of the commission. "Its function was to carry out investigations and to sponsor and assist educational programs designed to combat discrimination."
When, in 1950, Massachusetts outlawed segregation and discrimination in public housing, it gave the FEPC power over this area, renaming it the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Since that time, both the state and the federal government have expanded their antidiscrimination laws, so MCAD's responsibilities have steadily grown.
Many complaints are referred to the state body by other groups. When last fall Schkolnick decided to take the Fly Club to task for its men-only admissions policy, she took her grievance to the Cambridge Human Rights Commission. But that group lacked the resources to see the case through...