8 Fox VALLEY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL Lloyd A. Barbee, State Representative Wisconsin Legislature Assembly Chamber Madison, Wisconsin Dear Representative Barbee: 218 North Union Street Appleton, Wisconsin 54911 July 14, 1973 We are indeed grateful to you for coming to Appleton to address our Human Rights Council last Wednesday in spite of your busy schedule (and the inadequate directions!). It was the most exciting and stimulating talk we have heard in a long time (too long); perhaps this event will open the way to more frequent incursions into controversial matters of vital concern to us all. I appreciated especially your reference to Lesbianism as a positive and constructive adjunct to the women's movement, a revolution of such wide scope that to attribute its makeup to any particular race, class, creed, or ethnic group is to deny the "human rights reality" of its goals: to enable all women to enter the mainstream of society with equal responsibility and accountability as full citizens of this country. To identify the movement as comprised of upper middle-class white women is to support the factionalizing that so satisfies the white male chauvinistic 6666666 establish- ment. We have many men (of all races) working to improve the condition of women (all women) -- in fact, 15% of the NOW membership are men! All feminists, men and women alike, must take exception to the dichotomy or schism perpetrated by those in power, who insist on linking the 'movement' to white, well-off, disgruntled women, who are trying to take jobs away from men. Do you see why I was upset by your reference to the "foolishness of the women's liber- ation movement" and by your criticism of affirmative action programs, the first step in righting the wrongs against women throughout the history of this country. In your enlightened embracing of the causes of the poor and the oppressed, can you not also embrace the cause of women, whose oppression is so subliminal that it goes unnoticed and is even supported by many women, who heve been programmed into inferiority (One legislator said to and under-achievement from the cradle on. Representative Midge Miller the day after the WERA was defeated: --- S Fox VALLEY HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL "You see, chivalry is not dead." Another asked her to stay out of the Chamber so that the carpet would not be stained with her tears.) We have made some progress in the past year in bringing to light the fact of sex discrimination in the Fox Valley. As you well know, it is a matter of making people aware of an existing intolerable situation; once they recognize it, they will support its correction. We now have programs for rooting out sexism in the schools and industries of this area, and we are fortunate in having the cooperation of the media. Our recognition and acknowledgement of the oppression of women in every level of society can only increase our sensitivity to the needs of minority groups and the poor in general. If we succeed in tapping the great human resources now stifled in half the population of our country, perhaps that will signal the 'right time' for our common awakening to the other outrages being perpetrated in our jails, courts, police stations, and in society in general. The deprivation of the rights of one individual should be as abhorrent to us as that of a thousand, and will we be blind to that of half our population? I thought the lead on the enclosed account of your talk was distressingly flippant, but otherwise the young man did an adequate job, don't you think? You have many supporters and admirers in the Fox Valley, Representative Barbee, and it is our feeling of warmth and good will that I hope you will carry away with you, as well as our deep appreciation of the trouble you and your son took to come to us last Wednesday. It was a gift that we shall long remember. Good luck to you in the next two years. Yours with gratitude and appreciation, Mary Ann Rossi Brackenridge Mary Ann Rossi Brackenridge, President P.S. I have been laid up with an infection; hence we have delayed our departure until next Friday (July 20). It is a much-needed respite for me. The contact person for the council is Diane Cusatis, 1908 N. Racine, Appleton (her car broke down on the way to the Stewarts, and she arrived just after you left.) MARB --- LAW SCHOOL THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON 6 November 30, 1962 Philip E. Lerman Lerman Tire Service 1233 No. 4th Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin Dear Phil: You recall that last spring we had a little discussion of anti- discrimination legislation. I thought from your letter to me of June 9 that you would favor a bill that applies to all business trans- actions (rather then to transactions in places of "public accommoda- tion"). So I am disappointed in all the versions of the proposed bill that Stan Herbert has recently handed me. May I submit these views, hoping they may still be useful? First. The bill should prohibit discriminatory conduct in business. Originally the civil rights act applied to enumerated businesses (one of them being public accommodations--common carriage and innkeeping); now it should apply to all businesses. The defini- tions of "public building" and "pleces of public accommodation" in the statue are ludicrous; they are so far removed from common usage. The Virgin 1.1law is better in this regard; the statute of Califor- nia, held constitutional by its Supremem Court, is better yet. See Cal. Civil Code $51. Seeborn V. Poppy Construction Co., 57 Cal. 2d 463 (1962). This "all businesses" approach (with such specific exceptions as seem necessary) avoids such meaningless phrases as "regular price" and "full enjoyment". In my opinion there is no sufficient reason for treating housing separately from other formS of business. Second. Civil recoveries should not be inserted in a criminal statue, under the scheme of the Wisconsin Statutes. Third. While you may not want to propose a single enforcement agency because of existing rivalries, I can see no reason for not empowering some specialized agency (or agencies) to enforce the anti- discrimination law. Reliance primarily on criminal and civil suits is less effective and it is more burdensome to the individual dis- criminated against. Clouting discriminators with prosecution (except) as a last resort) awakes public sympathy for them. And the aggrieved individual should not have to carry the worry and the expense of a civil suit. The normal course should be an administrative proceeding --- Phillip E. Lerman -2- November 30, 1962 (as under the Labor Peace Act) before a body that has special quali- fications to recognize what evidence proves discrimination, a job that neither a judge nor a jury can do as skilfully. If the agency is not to have "ease and desist" and reparation powers (as it should), at the very least it should have power to subpene witnesses and records and publish findings, which should be evidence in my civil or criminal proceeding. Fourth. If the Human Rights Commission is to be the agency so empowered, it must be reorganized into a board of not more than three persons with a large advisory council. A large body can not operate successfully in a quasi-judicial proceeding. It may not be budget- arily feasible to have a three-man full-time paid commission. But how about a three-man part-time paid commission (on which, for in- stance, a person over ege for full time work or a mother with young children could effectively serve); or a full-time chairman with too associate members on per diem pay? Fifth. The sanction of revocation of license seems to me to need exploring though I fear that the people who grant and revoke licenses can not be expected to be alert to discrimination, and it would not be wise to establish unlicensing by some other authority. However would it not be feasible to empower the anti-discrimination agency to bring action before the licensing agency to revoke licenses for discrimination? I'd like to herr some discussion of this, at least. Of course it is easier to criticize than to draft. If you respond favorably to these ideas, I would like to work with you on drafting them into a bill. WOR:aeo cc: Virginia Hart Stanley Hebert Lloyd A. Barbee✓ Sincerely yours, William G. Rice Professor of Law 26 ---