This series consists of reports, press releases, memorandums, clippings, and correspondence maintained by Staff Director William L. Taylor and his successor, Howard A. Glickstein. The three principal projects present in this series are: the State Advisory Committees (SACs), Mexican-American, and Race and Education projects.
The SAC project files contain minutes of open meetings and summaries of closed meetings held throughout the South from 1965 to 1967 to assess compliance with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to disseminate information about school desegregation. The Mexican-American project was a major project relating to the administration of justice as it affected Mexican-Americans in the Southwest, but also addressed employment and education issues, including complaints of discrimination against Latino employees at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas; a series of walk-outs by students in Los Angeles, California in March 1968; and hearings in San Antonio, Texas in December 1968. The Race and Education project was undertaken in November 1965 in response to a mandate from President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate racial isolation in the public schools.
The Commission solicited opinions from administrators, teachers, parents, students, and others. The Commissions report, issued in February 1967, recommended several new legislative measures to end all forms of school segregation. Other records include civil rights-related studies conducted by Federal agencies, including Department of Defense reports on equal opportunity housing in the Armed Forces, and reports on equal access to Department of Agriculture farming programs. There are reports regarding the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles, California; and communications with the White House about the progress of Commission activities and the civil rights agendas of both President John F. Kennedy and President Johnson.
