There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior

9. Burrowing from Within

C H A P T E R 9 Burrowing from Within Working in the Johnson Administration WILEY BRANTON BEGAN working with Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey for the President’s Council on Equal Opportunity in April ,moving his family toWashington,D.C.,shortly thereafter.1 President Lyndon B. Johnson had asked Humphrey to review the federal government ’s implementation of the  Civil Rights Act and to suggest improvements.Humphrey found more than eleven different government entities that had specific responsibilities under the Act and other government offices that had similar responsibilities.2 This meant that assignments were unclear and officials could unintentionally duplicate the efforts of others or avoid acting altogether. Coordination clearly was needed. The council,as proposed by Humphrey,would have no operational responsibilities.Instead,it would“perform planning,evaluative,advisory, and coordinating functions.”3 Humphrey’s plan gave the council authority to require regular reports from all agencies on how they were working to implement the Civil RightsAct.Council members would review the reports,focus on specific problems,and move resources and personnel where needed to assure the swift pace of government action. President Johnson approved Humphrey’s plan in Executive Order  on February , .4 Humphrey was chair of the council, and its members were cabinet officers and agency heads.Since Humphrey could not personally supervise committee activities, however, an executive director was required. Branton’s experience,reputation,and credibility within the Negro community made him ideal for the position. He had created, from scratch, the mechanism that made the Voter Education Project a success. He  3KILPATRICK_pages_109-224.qxd 6/27/07 10:19 AM Page 109 could be expected to do the same with the President’s Council. In fact, there were probably very few people in the country who could match his qualifications. Use of a special council to focus on particular presidential initiatives was not a new idea.President HarryTruman had appointed a Presidential Committee on Civil Rights in  to investigate and recommend steps “to secure racial justice in the [southern] region.”5 The committee’s report led Truman to propose “the first civil rights legislative package . . . to Congress since Reconstruction.”6 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had created the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which required federal contractors to “search aggressively for qualified minority applicants” in an effort to increase the hiring of minorities.7 Humphrey was most interested in the  Civil Rights Act’s application to equal employment and education,and he wanted the council to establish a process that would receive and handle complaints from across the country.As executive director of the council, Branton would be the staff conduit that channeled citizen complaints to appropriate agencies. He would work with civil rights groups to assure their involvement in changes created by theAct.Given his existing close ties with these groups and his broad knowledge of the situation in the South,Branton also could advise Humphrey and the administration on local community concerns. In an address to the Fifty-sixth Annual NAACP Convention on June , , Branton described the council as “a clearing house for ideas—ideas that can be put into action to facilitate and improve the national effort to remove the ominous threads of discrimination from the fabric of society.”8 Soon after his appointment, Branton began weekly reporting to Humphrey on the activities of council staff, its various subcommittees , and council members.9 Portions of these memos were sent virtually unchanged by the vice president to the president.10 It may have been during this period,when Branton’s exposure to new groups and individuals expanded exponentially,that he developed his habit of keeping a list of names at the back of his pocket calendar.When he was scheduled for a meeting or had to give a speech,he would review that list in advance to remind himself of whom he might encounter.This made it easier to connect a name with a face.11 His daughter, Beverly, also mentioned that the children were trained to introduce themselves whenever  BURROWING FROM WITHIN 3KILPATRICK_pages_109-224.qxd 6/27/07 10:19 AM Page 110 they traveled with their father, so that Branton could hear the person’s response and be able to greet them by name himself.12 Securing Branton’s services for the council was considered a major coup,particularly in the Negro community.Jet magazine called Branton “the new ‘wonder man’ in the LBJ Administration...