The Indianapolis Human Rights Commission was organized in 1952 as an advisory group to Mayor on matters. The City Council passed an ordinance the following year that made the advisory board an official commission within city government. The original commission consisted of volunteer business, labor, religious, and civic leaders appointed by the mayor and City Council.
The commission, which had no legal authority, was empowered to mediate and educate citizens in “conditions which strain relations.” While often inactive during the 1950s, it has been credited with helping to integrate local hospitals, neighborhoods, parks, and businesses, as well as the city’s fire, police, and sanitation departments.
In 1958, the City Council approved a director and secretary to administer the commission. For the next two years Alex Kertis, also the city’s personnel director, worked as a part-time executive secretary. He was followed by Rev. (who years after leaving Indianapolis led the members of his Peoples Temple to mass suicide in Guyana). A full-time professional director, J. Griffin Crump, was not hired until 1963 as a result of increased state and national civil rights legislation, as well as local agitation under the leadership of commission co-chair .
The commission became more of an investigatory body when it steadily collaborated with the Indiana Civil Rights Commission in the early 1960s. The former commission exposed violations of the Indiana Civil Rights Law while the latter commission brought discrimination violations against Blacks and the Jewish community up for discussion in the state office building. As the commission became more of an investigatory body, its caseload multiplied, especially in regard to employment and housing discrimination. During the 1970s, when the commission’s jurisdiction expanded to include all of Marion County in the areas of schooling, housing, employment, education, public facilities, and gender discrimination, the granted it the power to initiate investigations and complaints, as well as obtain temporary injunctions, subpoenas, and court decrees to aid its investigations and enforce decisions.
In 1982, Mayor fired executive director Charles Guynn and reorganized the office after an investigation revealed internal conflicts, unqualified staff, and office supplies being used for personal work. Hudnut also took this action because the Indiana Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights charged that “equal employment opportunities [had] barely existed in Indianapolis under .” A two-year study by the Committee found that Indianapolis had made some strides but was “vague in providing equality for jobs and minority contracts.” By the end of the year, the commission was disbanded, and its work became the responsibility of the within the city’s Legal Division. Hudnut carried out the reorganization to provide a stronger and more comprehensive program to address these civil rights issues.
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