Adding Teeth to the Committee: The CommIssion on Intergroup Relations And Human Rights
In 1955, Mayor Robert F. Wagner and the City Council replaced the Mayor’s Committee on Unity with a fully funded city agency, the Commission on Intergroup Relations (COIR). The agency had powers beyond the earlier Committee; COIR could receive and investigate complaints regarding civil rights. The Commission not only studied prejudice and discrimination, but led investigations into racial, religious, and ethnic group tensions and discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, national origin and ancestry. Led by Executive Director Frank Horne and a panel of commissioners, the agency continued the mission to bring unity to New York City.
For the next several years, the COIR expanded its powers and purview. In 1962, the Commission was renamed the Commission on Human Rights with Madison S. Jones appointed as the Executive Director. With the passage of the Human Rights Law of the City of New York in 1965, the Commission was able to prosecute discrimination in private housing, employment, and public accommodations such as hotels and restaurants based on ethnic, gender and other biases.
