Before Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission was a strong ally in the movement for racial equality. But under Reagan, the panel became more of a bystander. Now high hopes for the commission's revival under George Bush are in danger of being undermined by the antics of its chairman, William Barclay Allen. He refuses to resign despite broad hints from the White House that he should step aside.
In February, Allen and a former commission psychologist, acccompanied by a TV crew, visited an Arizona Indian reservation to interview a 14-year-old Apache girl, the subject of a custody...