Abigail Thernstrom Not Allowed to See Report About Florida Voting

Mass. Member of Civil Rights Commission Kept in Dark 

July 2001

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released its report on the "disfranchisement" of black voters in Florida last month - before members of the Commission had even seen it.

One of the excluded members was Abigail Thernstrom, member of the Massachusetts Board of Education and Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. She is one of two Republicans on the eight-person commission.

Dr. Thernstrom told the New York Times that the Commission's early release of its report was "a procedural travesty."

She says that she will not be surprised by the content of the report, which vilifies Florida Republicans. "I knew what the conclusions were before this process started."

As Dr. Thernstrom noted in March, when she dissented from a preliminary report issued by the Commission, "I think the Commission has written its report and is now holding these so-called hearings to support its claims. It's just terrible. I take discrimination and disenfranchisement very seriously, but I want evidence."

Dr. Thernstrom called the process "scandalous." "Nobody ever asked me what my views were. I have never had any discussion with a single member of the staff about the substance or the conclusions of the report."

Russell Redenbaugh, an independent, was also sharply critical of chairwoman Mary Frances Berry for politicizing the Commission.

Redenbaugh told the Washington Times, "Her statements are left-of-center, her political contributions are left-of-center. It's time for President Bush to show some leadership and designate a new chair."

Dr. Thernstrom agreed. "The political appointees involved with this commission should have resigned with the old administration. The Bush administration should get them out."

Some observers say it would be better just to abolish the Commission altogether. Congress created it in 1957, when most blacks could not vote because of real "disfranchisement," and when congressmen from the states in which most blacks lived refused to let the nation address civil rights problems. But the Commission has long ago outlived its usefulness, and is now an embarrassingly partisan circus, they say.