Agency History
The Governor's Task Force on Civil Rights was formed to address the increase in threatening and violent actions against racial, cultural and religious minority individuals and groups. The activities of the Ku Klux Klan and similar groups was of great concern to the Task Force. In 1982 the Task Force submitted its two volume Report On Racial, Ethnic, and Religious Violence to Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr.
The executive Order (B-66.80) that created the Task Force was signed on July 20, 1980 and amended on August 13, 1981. This Order directed the Secretary of the State and Consumer Services Agency to serve as Chair of the Task Force and the Director of the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, or designee, to serve as executive secretary. At the time the Task Force was formed, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing had recently been given department status under the State and Consumer Services Agency and was no longer a division in the Department of Industrial Relations.
The Task Force interfaced with the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, and the California Commission on Crime Control and Violence Prevention and established liaisons with numerous government and private entities that were concerned with civil rights. These were not limited to California and materials from other states are included in the files.
From the guide to the Governor's Task Force on Civil Rights Records, (California State Archives)
