The spacious offices of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations, in the lovely old art deco building that formerly housed the Kraft Company on the near north side, have been repainted, recarpeted, and partially refurbished. Some of the executive offices even sport elegant rugs and plants. But as if to deny his role as a bureaucrat, the chairman, Clarence Wood, works at a banquet-size folding table in a nearly barren office, and the chair on which I sat to interview him had lost its arm pads. One of these days, Wood says, he’ll buy some appropriate furniture.
Whether the mayor’s motive was to end discrimination or, as some critics say, primarily to court the votes of minorities and liberals, the effect of the legislation is clear: the commission has broad powers to act against all forms of discrimination and a staff large enough to carry out the work.
So this case was Sander’s victory. The judge gave the young man a lecture, she said, and told him, “Since neighborhoods are so important to you, I’m going to let you get acquainted with a new one, the House of Corrections.”
But as always, Sander had to depend on the company’s willingness to cooperate. She could not make it do anything. A fair number of companies were cooperative but many were not, and when they weren’t Sander could not proceed. In Cora Smith’s case, the company agreed reluctantly that it might have been too hasty in dismissing her. So the company gave Smith two weeks’ severance and a promise of a good recommendation.
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Now Sander and her colleagues are playing with new rules. If a company (or landlord, or realtor, or whoever) does not comply with a request for information, it can be subpoenaed. And a wrongdoer who does not voluntarily negotiate can be forced to. These negotiations now involve a professional mediator who is empowered to make sizable financial awards. And if a wrongdoer refuses to pay, the CHR legal department can set up a formal hearing that has the status of a court trial, with the victim provided a lawyer without cost.
While the CHR’s investigators are responding to complaints of discrimination, Gwen Rattliff and her colleagues in the education and intergroup relations program try to stop fires in the community before they start. Rattliff goes into the schools and gives workshops designed to counteract the biases kids learn at home. At the start of each school year, the department sends letters to principals offering the workshops. Rattliff gets lots of requests.
The Human Relations Commission’s new powers are not the issue that divides opinion on last year’s human rights ordinance. The bill reorganized the CHR, and in the view of critics it helped the mayor tighten his control over every aspect of city government.
