![]() The Committee is authorized on behalf of the President to inquire into and to determine whether and in what respect current law-enforcement measures and the authority and means possessed by Federal, State, and local governments may be strengthened and improved to safeguard the civil rights of the people.ģ. Roosevelt, Jr., The Right Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill, Mr. There is hereby created a committee to be known as the President's Committee on Civil Rights, which shall be composed of the following-named members, who shall serve without compensation: the United States, it is hereby ordered as follows:ġ. Now, THEREFORE, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the statutes of. WHEREAS it is essential that all possible steps be taken to safeguard our civil rights: WHEREAS the action of individuals who take the law into their own hands and inflict summary punishment and wreak personal vengeance is subversive of our democratic system of law enforcement and public criminal justice, and gravely threatens our form of government and WHEREAS the preservation of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution is essential to domestic tranquility, national security, the general welfare, and the continued existence of our free institutions and The substance of this report will be recommendations with respect to the adoption or establishment by legislation or otherwise of more adequate and effective means and procedures for the protection of the civil rights of the people of the United States.ĮSTABLISHING THE PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON CIVIL RIGHTS I have, therefore, issued today an Executive Order creating the President's Committee on Civil Rights and I am asking this Committee to prepare for me a written report. We must provide the Department of Justice with the tools to do the job. The protection of our democratic institutions and the enjoyment by the people of their rights under the Constitution require that these weak and inadequate statutes should be expanded and improved. Yet in its discharge of the obligations placed on it by the Constitution, the Federal Government is hampered by inadequate civil rights statutes. The Constitutional guarantees of individual liberties and of equal protection under the laws clearly place on the Federal Government the duty to act when state or local authorities abridge or fail to protect these Constitutional rights. Wherever the law enforcement measures and the authority of Federal, state, and local governments are inadequate to discharge this primary function of government, these measures and this authority should be strengthened and improved. The preservation of civil liberties is a duty of every Government-state, Federal and local. ![]() In some places, from time to time, the local enforcement of law and order has broken down, and individuals - sometimes ex-servicemen, even women - have been killed, maimed, or intimidated. Today, Freedom From Fear, and the democratic institutions which sustain it, are again under attack. It was so after the last war, when organized groups fanned hatred and intolerance, until, at times, mob action struck fear into the hearts of men and women because of their racial origin or religious beliefs. And from time to time, and in some places, this freedom has been gravely threatened. Yet all parts of our population are not equally free from fear. This is the report which we have prepared in accordance with the instructions which you gave to us in your statement and Executive Order on December 5, 1946:įreedom From Fear is more fully realized in our country than in any other on the face of the earth.
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