Commission Asks Anti-Bias Group For More Action

A commission appointed by Governor Peabody '42 to study the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination issued a report Monday urging that the MCAD take a more active and energetic part in enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

Mark DeWolfe Howe '28, Professor of Law, and Mrs. Ledonia Wright, a specialist at the Harvard Medical School's Laboratory of Community Psychiatry, served on the five-member commission.

The report makes three general recommendations. First, it urges that the MCAD initiate complaints of discrimination itself instead of waiting for complaints to be brought in.

"No one familiar with the climate of behavior and opinion in the Common wealth," it charges, "can reasonably contend that a significant proportion of the unlawful acts of discrimination which take place daily are brought to the attention of the Commission."

Procedural Changes

Secondly, the report suggests several changes in the MCAD's procedure for handling discrimination complaints. Pointing out that "unnecessary delay can defeat the legal remedy of an individual complainant who has in fact been discriminated against," it recommends that complaints be handled more quickly. Initial investigations of probable cause should be concluded within twenty-four hours."

The commission also urges that the MCAD offices, which are now within a block of the Boston Common, be located on an area more convenient and congenial to most potential complainants" and that the offices be kept open on evenings and weekends.

More Staff Needed

Finally, the report suggests that the MCAD's staff be increased and that a fifth member be added to the commission. "Over and over again," it says, "we have seen evidence of the sometimes rippling consequences that result from the fact that there are now but four commissioners...no majority decisions are possible."

Howe predicted last night that the MCAD would follow most of the study group's recommendations. "Most of them were in the wind already," he said, "and the report will probably help them along little."