The Long Haul of Rep. Gus Hawkins; At 83, the Steady Champion of Civil Rights Is Retiring From a Battle That Won't End
Somehow Rep. Augustus Hawkins (D-Calif.) knew the last days of his 28 years in Congress would be marked by an executive slap. Months ago, the Bush administration promised to veto the Civil Rights Bill of 1990 if the version Hawkins cosponsored was sent to the White House. It happened Monday.</br></br>Bush issued his three-page veto message and Hawkins immediately issued his two-sentence reply. He had prepared it Thursday, two days before the bill went to the White House, and in his blunt, succinct fashion he called Bush the leader of "a national retreat from civil rights. ... By relying on the same shopworn excuses and code words that were offered against every great piece of civil rights legislation, George Bush plays on the worst of America's fears, and the worst of America's prejudices."</br></br>Riding back to Capitol Hill the day of the veto, fresh from delivering a tough and, he insisted, cautiously optimistic view of the country's support of education, he was livid about the backsliding of civil rights.</br></br>"The latest wrinkle, and that is in Bush's bill, is a concept he calls customer preference," says Hawkins. Although the specific phrase has been eliminated from the alternative bill the White House sent to the Hill last weekend, Hawkins says the idea of a preference is simply an updated endorsement of bigotry. This provision would have allowed businesses to argue that they were responding to their clientele's wishes when charged with discrimination.</br></br>"That's how far we've drifted and fallen," said Hawkins, seeing the phantom of the no-blacks-allowed signs he saw on the road from Los Angeles to Sacramento on his way to the state Assembly 56 years ago. "This is the latest offer from the president as to what he wants in the civil rights bill. We are better off not passing it."