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Ray Bottorff Jr

Subject Matter Expert (SME) - Civil Rights Blog #10:

Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division (Part 1)

Ray Bottorff Jr

This is part one of a two part blog that covers civil rights records in the Department of Justice. Part one covers the history of the Civil Rights Division. The second part will cover the actual records created by the division – Classification 144 records.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice is tasked to uphold the civil and constitutional rights of all persons in the United States. The Division enforces federal statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), disability, religion, familial status, national origin, and citizenship status. In the decades since the Division’s creation, the National Archives and Records Administration has become the final home to its  permanent records. 

The Civil Rights Division is responsible for enforcing several laws. Two sets of laws, and their updates and amendments, cover the bulk of the case files at the National Archives – the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with its amendments through 2006. Case files covering investigations and enforcements of civil rights matters were assigned the “Classification” number 144. 

“President Lyndon B. Johnson Signs the Voting Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and Other Civil Rights Leaders Look on, President's Room, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC”, August 6, 1965. From the series Johnson White House Photographs, November 22, 1963–January 20, 1969 in the Collection LBJ-WHPO: White House Photo Office Collection, November 22, 1963–January 20, 1969. Located at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library. National Archives Identifier Number: 2803443.

Other laws the Civil Rights Division enforces in whole or in part include: 

The head of the Civil Rights Division is the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. The Division is divided into sections that have different responsibilities:

Today, the Civil Rights Division is a powerful organization within the Department of Justice. But it was not always that way.

The Predecessors and Origins of the Civil Rights Division

The origins of the Civil Rights Division arose from a dark chapter in American history. Several high-profile lynchings in the United States during the 1930s placed pressure on Congress and President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration to address the situation. Members of Congress put forward two efforts to advance anti-lynching legislation during this time. The first bill was the Costigan–Wagner Anti-Lynching Bill in 1934 and later the Gavagan-Wagner Act / Anti-Lynching Bill of 1937. Further history about this anti-lynching legislation can be found in this History Hub post.

The African American community and Southern Democrats were both important parts of the coalition that supported the Roosevelt administration. Civil Rights organizations, especially the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), pressed for anti-lynching legislation. Southern Democrats in Congress stopped all anti-lynching legislative efforts in order to maintain segregation policies in the South. Not wanting to alienate the “Solid South” coalition and weaken his re-election chances, President Roosevelt refused to support any anti-lynching legislation. But he eventually bowed to pressure from groups like the NAACP and his wife Eleanor Roosevelt and directed the Department of Justice to establish the Civil Liberties Unit under the Criminal Division on February 3, 1939. By 1941, it would be reorganized as the Civil Rights Section. 

The Section would be tasked to examine incidents of lynching, voting rights violations, violations of the 13th Amendment’s prohibitions against slavery and involuntary servitude (in particular, debt slavery better known as peonage), and other civil liberties and civil rights violations, especially police brutality. These investigations could result in prosecution by the Section’s parent organization, the Criminal Division. 

Until the 1950s, the Civil Rights Section was comparatively small and inadequately staffed to handle all the Civil Rights complaints it received. It did not have its own investigators, they had no local offices, and the Section had to rely on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The ineffectiveness of the Civil Rights Section led to calls for reform in the prosecution of civil rights violations. These efforts resulted in the creation of Part 2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which directed the creation of an assistant attorney general for civil rights. Attorney General William P. Rogers ordered the establishment of the Civil Rights Division on December 9, 1957. The Civil Rights Section was folded into the Civil Rights Division.

As each new piece of civil rights legislation was passed by Congress, the Civil Rights Division grew. So did its scope of mission and its power to investigate civil rights violations.

As the Division’s mission expanded, other classifications were created to cover investigations into other types of civil rights, civil liberties, and equal opportunities violations. Those classifications are: 

Some of these violations and their investigations can be found in Classification 144 records, since they represent matters that were investigated by the Civil Rights Section or Division before any law was passed that necessitated the creation of a new classification. More about Classification 144 records will be found in part two of this blog. 

“Photograph of Ruby Bridges Being Escorted to School by U.S. Marshals”, November 14, 1960. From the series Photographs of Agency Officials and Activities in Record Group 60: General Records of the Department of Justice. National Archives Identifier Number: 175539851.

Who Uses These Records?

Studying civil rights-era history includes studying when those rights were infringed upon. The records of the Civil Rights Division provide investigatorial insight to these infringements. 

For researchers to study institutionalized racism, these records provide a window into a dark chapter in our nation’s history. The records provide details of incidents like lynching, false imprisonment, peonage, violations of the rights of the accused, and other civil liberties violations. These records represent how the government processed these cases.

For researchers who study law enforcement, these records demonstrate both the limitations of federal law enforcement power and the strength of that power when given the laws and the tools to do the job. When it comes to local law enforcement, these files help those who study incidents of police brutality.

Anyone who is interested in how the Department of Justice pursues and litigates cases will find these files of interest. These litigation case files are one of the best sets of records to show how the DOJ works to enforce the laws of the land. Records from the Civil Rights Division show how changes in the law impacts how enforcement takes place and how far it can go. These records, along with the records from other divisions are a picture of the administrative history of Department of Justice law enforcement.

Historians, scholars, researchers, television producers, documentarians, authors, and many others have used this collection of records to fill in pieces of American history. 

“Central Research Room” A view of the Central Research Room at the National Archives at Washington, DC in February 1964. From the series Photographs of the National Archives Building in Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives Identifier Number: 266848265.

Records from the Civil Rights Division show how changes in the law impacts how enforcement takes place and how far it can go. Viewing these records you can see how the process of litigation unfolds, from the initial start of the investigation right up to the final outcome. These records, along with the records from other divisions are a picture of the administrative history of Department of Justice law enforcement.

Next time, part two of this blog, on Classification 144 - Civil Rights, the records themselves.