The Immorality of Discrimination… What shall we do about it?
Highlights from the New York City Commission of Human Rights Collection
“It is a wonderful thing and it is a true strength of this nation that in times like these, with hate spreading ever faster throughout the world, we support a group whose selfless aim is the advance of human freedom and understanding.” Mayor Vincent Impellitteri, 1950-1953
This simple but poignant memo was written by MCOU Associate Director Rabbi Bernard Lander to Executive Director Dan Dodson. Lander would later go on to found Touro College and Dodson, an NYU professor, was also a member of the Mayor’s Committee on Baseball which helped integrate baseball in 1947.
On February 27, 1944, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia created the Mayor's Committee on Unity in response to citywide concerns about race relations following riots in Harlem that occurred in 1935 and again in 1943. Its purpose was to "to observe and study unfavorable conditions and dangerous trends, and analyze objectively their causes and what steps may be taken to combat them." From that small committee was born the New York City Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which today works to protect New Yorkers against discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, immigration status, and gender identity, among other protected categories.
1948 saw the introduction of an approval window placard for merchants in Harlem. Given by the Harlem Consumer Merchant Arbitration Board, the designation was an effort to assure shoppers that they would not be subject to price gouging, discriminatory hiring, or poor treatment, a direct response to issues of inequality in 125th Street businesses.
The records of CCHR were transferred to the New York City Municipal Archives in XXXX and date from xxxx-xxxx. This remarkable collection has been little used and languished on shelves since. When brought to light, the collection revealed the history of how a first-of-its-kind city agency was developed with the goal of improving civic life and unity for all citizens of New York City. There is insight into challenging social problems, of how they were perceived and how they were resolved, as well the many the many changes in social justice laws over a thirty period. Later document include potential discrimination cases that were filed with CCHR. These include investigative materials, legal reports and and staff correspondence, as well as court records for those cases that were found to have probable cause violations of discrimination laws.
Beginning in 2025, with support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the New York City Municipal Archives (MA) has been working to process and make available to the records of Commission. These records include minutes, reports, speeches, correspondence, and planning files created to fulfill their mission and address systemic injustice. They represent local and national responses to racial and socio-economic unrest, religious intolerance, and systemic discrimination practices from the World War Two-era through the 1960s and 1970s civil rights eras. This digital gallery highlights the history and work of a City agency whose entire purpose it to protect the rights of New Yorkers.