Civil Rights: 100 Years Later

It was just a century ago, in the midst of the Civil War, that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. In a special report to the President last week, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (one Negro and five whites), looked back over the successes and failures of the Negro's struggle since then. The commission's judgment: "More forces are working for the realization of civil rights for all Americans than ever before in history."

The real spurt in civil rights progress, says the report, dates from the Supreme Court school segregation decision of 1954: "From this decision has flowed...