Frank's Future

When John Kennedy named Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr. to be Under Secretary of Commerce early in March 1963, he had every intention of boosting him eventually into the No. 1 spot at Commerce, then held by Luther Hodges. To give Roosevelt some show case exposure before the promotion, Kennedy sent him into Appalachia with orders to find a prescription for poverty there. But a year later, when Roosevelt submitted his 93-page report. Lyndon Johnson was in the White House.

Lyndon praised Roosevelt's Appalachia work, used it as a base for much of his own anti-poverty program. But the President did not consider "Frank" to be of Cabinet caliber, and last January Johnson selected Drug Executive John T. Connor to replace the retiring Hodges. Said Roosevelt: "I was disappointed in not being picked, but who wouldn't be? I'm objective enough to know that a businessman should fill that office." Connor and Roosevelt got along all right, but the Secretary wanted to have a top deputy of his own choosing. Roosevelt was a bit restless too.

Out of Space. Finally last week the President solved it for everyone. He named Frank Roosevelt, 50, to a two-year term as the first chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an agency created under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The board begins its official function on July 2, investigating specific complaints of job discrimination on the basis of race, religion, national origin or sex among labor unions or employers with 25 or more workers. Beyond "informal methods of conference, conciliation and persuasion," the commission cannot do much about intransigent violators except to wait for already overworked Civil Rights Division lawyers in the Justice Department to bring suits.

The commission's job was not made any easier by the fact that Johnson waited so long to make his appointment. Said Roosevelt himself: "We don't have any space, any staff, any budget for 1966, any guidelines." Beyond that, Roosevelt does not even know any of the other four commission members.*

Not Cool, but Chilled. On paper, Roosevelt's new job would seem to be a first-rate launching platform for what he really wants to do: run next year against Nelson Rockefeller for Governor of New York. "I would be less than frank," said Frank last week, "if I didn't say that I was interested in the governorship. I would be flattered if the party wanted me or drafted me." But the civil rights and minority group votes do not come automatically--not even to a Roosevelt, as Brother Jimmy discovered last month when he was soundly trounced in the Los Angeles mayoralty election. And several civil rights spokesmen were less than enthusiastic about Frank Roosevelt's appointment. Said Donald Slaiman, director of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s civil rights department: "We were not only cool to Roosevelt's selection, but chilled. He just doesn't have any civil rights experience." Said Clarence Mitchell, a director of the N.A.A.C.P.: "I didn't exactly think of it as a good choice."

* Mrs. Eileen Hernandez, a Negro, assistant chief of California's Fair Employment Practices Division; Richard A. Graham, a Wisconsin businessman who is currently heading the Peace Corps contingent in Tunisia; the Rev. Luther Holcomb, executive director of the Greater Dallas Council of Churches and chairman of the advisory committee of the Texas Civil Rights Commission; Samuel C. Jackson, a Negro lawyer from Topeka, Kans.

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