It consisted of a seven-member, unpaid-volunteer governing and review board, and a staff of paid investigators managed by an executive director.
[1][6][3][5] The list of those protected classes grew over the subsequent years to include:[6][3][5] In a 1990 agreement between the KCCR and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices, the KCCR's role, at that time, was partially defined (in regards to employment) as:[7] The [KCCR] is charged with the enforcement of the provisions of the Kansas Act Against Discrimination and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act that prohibit discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, physical handicap, ancestry or age.The authorizing and empowering legislation was enclosed chiefly in the Kansas Statutes Chapter 44: Labor And Industries, Article 10: Kansas Acts Against Discrimination.
"[3] The broader 1965 law also granted the KCCR the authority to obtain subpoenas, if deemed necessary, to aid an investigation or to produce evidence and witnesses for a public hearing.
[5] Also in the 1970s, the Legislature further expanded KCCR's role by authorizing it to investigate any company contracting with governmental units, to determine possible Kansas Civil Rights Act violations.
[1][2][3][5] The 1953 Anti-Discrimination Commission grew out of the emerging Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., which had particular impact in the Kansas capital, Topeka, where the pivotal racial legal case Brown v. Board of Education emerged, ultimately forcing an end to legally mandated or officially sanctioned, racial segregation of public schools not only in Topeka, and throughout Kansas, but nationwide.