CIVIL RIGHTS: Bush appointment is really a step back for diversity

President George W. Bush will surely hold up his appointment of African-American attorney Gerald Reynolds to head the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights as another example of the diversity in hisadministration. But there's no diversity beyond skin shade reflected in the naming of the conservative Reynolds, an avowed foe of affirmative action who has said that racial discrimination is generally an overblownissue. As such, Reynolds is a questionable choice to head an agency that was spawned by the civil rights movement and is charged with serving as the government's conscience on issues of race and equal opportunity. However, a conservative president is empowered to name conservative appointees. Reynolds will certainly take the commission in a direction more to the liking of a president, who has been demonstrably tone deaf on civil rights issues. The commission's main job is to investigate and to publicly highlight charges of racial discrimination. It's hard to see Reynolds rushing to the cause. His view of America is in direct conflict with that of large numbers of urban, and increasingly suburban, minorities, people for whom encounters of discrimination and racial bias are all too real. Reynolds' selection is a double blow to civil rights because it follows the departure of the commission's longtime chair, Mary Frances Berry. She was critical of Bush and outspoken, passionate and independent enough to tussle with both Democratic and Republican leaders during a quarter-century on the panel. [more]

• A civil-rights throwback [more