Taking the Fight for Civil and Human Rights Into the Future
For more than a month, the 2000 election would remain unresolved because of arguments over a recount in Florida, where there had been substantial and credible allegations in several counties of the disenfranchisement of minority voters and the disqualification of senior citizens. Eventually, the Supreme Court would halt the recount, making George W. Bush the 43rd president of the United States, and ushering in a period of significant challenges to civil and human rights at a time of great national tragedy.
On September 11, 2001, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, terrorists killed more than 3,000 Americans, stunning the nation and the world. These attacks left many Americans longing for security, more tolerant of infringements of civil liberties, and less tolerant of entire communities.
As the Bush II administration and many members of the House and Senate from both parties hastened to appear “tough on terrorism,” the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) sounded cautionary notes. LCCR would also launch a PSA campaign, “We Are All Americans,” featuring Grammy award winning artist Dave Matthews, calling on viewers during this time of tragedy to reflect on the promise of America: that people who trace their heritage to every nation on Earth can live together with mutual respect and understanding.
When the levees in New Orleans broke in 2005, those who suffered most were the very poor, the very old, and the very young. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita revealed the persistence of poverty in this country. Starting soon after the hurricanes, LCCR lobbied for a faster response and a better handling of the situation. Together with the Center for American Progress, ACORN, and the Coalition on Human Needs, LCCR launched “Half in Ten” — a campaign to cut poverty in half within 10 years.
The new millennium had begun with Wall Street surging, housing prices at unprecedented highs, and the country awash in easy money and plentiful goods from the global economy, but also easy credit and usurious predatory mortgage lending practices that were largely aimed at people of color. By the beginning of 2008, a dramatic increase in mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures triggered an equally dramatic global financial crisis.
The result was a deep recession, and the hardest hit were the communities who had benefited the least from previous prosperity. LCCR advocated for legislation to provide relief for homeowners faced with foreclosure, especially those from communities of color whose first homes were their first steps in acquiring wealth. LCCR also supported legislation to create a new agency responsible for enforcing financial consumer protection laws.
These new challenges underscored the need for additional capacity and broader reach to address the sweep and scope of the work that needed to be done. Under the leadership of Wade Henderson and Dr. Dorothy Height, LCCR would grow from 180 to more than 200 member organizations — including its first Muslim and Sikh civil rights groups — and from a staff of seven to 45.
Henderson would lead the coalition through the passage of every major civil rights law for the next 20 years as well as in fighting back against attacks.
This would include successful campaigns to secure the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, the Voting Rights Act reauthorization of 2006, and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. But there were also setbacks. LCCR would spearhead an ultimately unsuccessful effort to oppose the confirmation of former Senator John Ashcroft as attorney general. Bush’s Supreme Court picks — John Roberts as chief justice and Samuel Alito as associate justice — also prompted serious doubts about both nominees’ commitments to the civil rights gains of the past. LCCR warned that their judicial philosophies would come into conflict with long-established legal precepts— concerns that proved prescient.
Beginning in 2008, the nation would take giant steps forward beyond the wildest dreams of LCCR’s founders. The nation would elect its first African-American president, reaching an historic milestone on its journey to justice. Proposed by President Truman more than 60 years earlier, health care reform would finally be enacted, and it would include the protections against discrimination that LCCR played a part in passing. Other successful campaigns would lead to the enactment of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, and the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (re-named the Every Student Succeeds Act) in 2015.
LCCR would also help to secure the historic confirmations of Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina and first woman of color to serve on the Supreme Court, and Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African-American attorney general in 2009; the confirmation of Justice Elena Kagan in 2010; the first director of the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau Richard Cordray in 2012; Labor Secretary Tom Perez in 2013; Attorney General Loretta Lynch in 2015; and countless federal judges.
LCCR would work to ensure a fair and accurate census, building on its “Everyone Counts” campaign for the 2000 Census to launch the “It’s Time. Make Yourself Count” campaign for the 2010 Census. As more and more concerns emerged around the need to protect civil rights in an era of algorithmic decision-making and artificial intelligence, LCCR would release the groundbreaking Civil Rights Principles for the Era of Big Data in 2014, which helped change the national policy debates over the use of big data. LCCR would also lead campaigns to persuade Google to ban online payday loan ads, to score police department use of body worn cameras, and to convince the Federal Communications Commission to reform predatory prison phone rates.
During this time, LCCR would greatly expand the capacity of U.S. civil rights organizations to engage on human rights concerns and would champion the U.S. ratification of international civil and human rights treaties, leading delegations to the United Nations and abroad in 2004 and 2014. LCCR would also create new task forces to address equity in access to health care, to advocate for fair and equitable federal communication policies, to advance economic security, and to strengthen the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
In 2003, the Supreme Court would issue its first decision in 25 years on affirmative action in admissions to colleges and universities, holding in Grutter v. Bollinger that race could be a factor in admission decisions. Unfortunately, the Court would later retreat from this approach, striking down in 2007 the Seattle and Louisville school districts’ plans and ruling that race could not be a factor in assigning children to public schools.
Meanwhile, affirmative action programs would come under fire in the states, through referendum initiatives to outlaw race and gender-based considerations in the hiring policies in state governments and the admissions policies in state colleges and universities. These misnamed “equal opportunity” initiatives were approved by the voters in Michigan, defeated in Colorado, and failed to qualify for the ballot in three other states. LCCR would work with the civil rights coalition to set strategies, frame messages, and organize grassroots efforts to defeat these initiatives and defend affirmative action. By the end of the decade, most federal and state affirmative action programs remained in place.
In 2010, as LCCR entered its 60th year, the organization would officially change its name to The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. As Henderson would explain, “There is and always has been an inherent connection between civil and human rights. In many ways, the decision to formally incorporate ‘human rights’ into our name is a return to first principles. At the same time, as we enter our 60th year we believe the link between civil and human rights will be even more important to our ability to address the serious challenges of the 21st century and to find common purpose on issues that help move us forward as a nation.”
In 2015, after a visionary two decades at the helm of the coalition, Henderson would announce his retirement, paving the way for a new generation of leadership. “You want to leave at the top of your game,” Henderson said. “The landscape of Washington has clearly changed, but The Leadership Conference has adapted and evolved, and some of its best work is taking place right now.”
Read more about The Leadership Conference’s history and legacy in our 75th Anniversary series: “This Is a Time for Action”: On This MLK Day, We Honor Our 75-Year-Old Coalition’s Legacy, Courage, and Resilience; At 75, Our Work Continues; Chaos, Confusion, & Abuse of Power: Trump’s First Week Back in Office; An Unending Fight to Hold on to What We Had Won; Progress Against the Odds; Passing the Torch of National Leadership; On the Edge of a New Millennium: Stepping Up Efforts in the Fight for Civil Rights.