Committee of Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York, Inc.
Historical Note
The Committee on Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York (CCRM) incorporated on March 24, 1950, under the initial title of the Committee on Civil Rights in East Manhattan, Inc. The corporation was created with the purpose of comparing public practices in public accommodations, housing, employment, health and other fields in which all human beings are entitled to equal treatment as prescribed by the principles of equality embodied in the American Constitution. The principal founders were Snowden T. Herrick, Edna A. Merson, Horace T. Herrick, Richard H. Paul, and Herrick Lidstone.
From April to May of 1950, the Committee began a pilot test for a luncheonette survey. 107 testers reviewed 50 luncheonettes and drugstores for signs of discrimination against Black patrons and found none. This pilot test became the foundation for future restaurant surveys. In June of 1950, testing for treatment of Black patrons in a sample of 62 East midtown restaurants found evidence of discrimination in 42% of cases. The Operations Committee of the CCRM formulated all questionnaires, testing methods, and training programs for volunteer participants; while Claire Selltiz prepared the final report, “Procedures and Findings of Restaurant Audit.” In 1951, an informal recheck of discriminatory restaurants from the 1950 survey found that, of the 28 tests, discrimination was found in almost half. In 1952, the CCRM conducted a recheck of the original (from 1950) sample of restaurants, with an addition of 50 new restaurants, creating a new sample of 93 total restaurants. After two years of working with restaurant associations and individual restaurants in an educational effort to reduce and eliminate discriminatory practices, this retest reflected a 16% discrimination rate. These findings are described in the report, “Procedures and Findings in Resurvey of Restaurants, March 21- April 1, 1952.”
The CCRM conducted a survey of 50 West side restaurants in November of 1954. The findings, described in the report, “Summary Report of Survey on West Side Restaurants, November 1954,” showed a 10% discrimination rate with the primary discrimination being the location of tables assigned to Black patrons. In 1954, the Committee on Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York published the pamphlet, “The Tables are Turning,” a reprint of the article authored by Claire Selltiz, “Use of Survey Methods in a Citizens’ Campaign Against Discrimination,” from Human Organization, Vol. 14, No. 3.
In 1955, a survey of real estate brokers’ practices in renting apartments to African American applicants commenced with a control group of White applicants. The findings, prepared by Dr. John A. Morsell with assistance from the CCRM Technical Committee, are described in the report, “Summary of Procedures and Findings in Housing Survey, January, 1953- April 1955.” The CCRM conducted the Open Occupancy Living in the Bronx survey in 1956. The subject was a Bronx neighborhood that had sustained occupancy of both Blacks and Whites for a number of years. Jerry Cunliffe prepared the summary. In 1957, the Committee prepared and circulated a country- wide questionnaire to supplement the 1955 survey and interviews with real estate agents. This survey was an effort to gather national information, with the exclusion of the South, on patterns of discrimination in housing. From 1957 to 1958, this national survey was repeated. In 1958, the CCRM published the article, “CCRM- Grass Roots in the Big City,” in the periodical, The Crisis.
In April of 1958, the Brown Sharkey Isaacs Fair Housing Practice law (which passed in December 1951) became effective in New York City. The CCRM conducted a survey of experiences of members of minority groups in renting apartments in four boroughs of New York City to evaluate the effectiveness of the Brown Sharkey Isaacs law. The Partnership Apartment Seekers’ Experiment began in 1960, in which White volunteer checkers and Black apartment seekers worked together to secure housing for the latter. In 1961, the Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award was given to Edna A. Merson, Chairperson. She accepted in the name of the Committee on Civil Rights in Metropolitan New York. On April 27, 1962, Edna Merson received a letter from Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson personally inviting her to a Washington D.C. conference given by the President’s Committee on Equal Employment. The Committee initiated the CCRM/ WMCA Radio “Ring for Rights” program on March 1, 1965, in order to combat discrimination in housing in New York and suburban areas. On October 20, 1966, the Certificate of Dissolution was filed, dissolving the CCRM Corporation.