Book Review: To Secure These Rights: The Report of the President\u27s Committee on Civil Rights

THE President\u27s Committee has received a well-deserved accolade of praisefrom the civilized, and of brickbats from the blood-fanatics, for its report oncivil rights in America, of which more than a million copies have been reprinted.So far as I know, however, none of the commentators on this importantdocument has noted that it is not the first in its field. Some 78 yearsbefore the landing of the Pilgrims, the first comprehensive report on the civilrights of Americans was completed. In the concluding paragraphs of hisreport, dated December 8, 1542, Fra Bartholomew de las Casas expressedsome doubt as to whether it could be worse to give the Indians into thecharge of the devils of hell than to the Christians of the Indies. Unfortunatelythe world\u27s mightiest government, in 1542, was not mighty enoughto correct the abuses that Las Casas reported. A number of high-mindedstatutes outlawing various current forms of racial discrimination and oppressionwere promulgated, but they were not enforced. And because Spain, inits American dominions, could not assure equal justice to its people, thelands it ruled were blighted, and its imperial power slowly crumbled into thedust