The civil rights division of the Justice Department was created by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957.
The Washington Post wrote in 1988 that Reynolds "will have a place in the history books as the first assistant attorney general for civil rights to try to get the federal government, local governments and even the courts to halt a wide range of established civil rights reforms, from affirmative action to busing."
According to Nicholas Katzenbach:[7] The department is supposed to defend the disadvantaged, the people who are victims of discrimination.
He was called "mean spirited", "rigid" and the "Scrooge of the Justice Department", "the principal architect of a comprehensive attack on our civil rights laws" and an "ideologue", with a "lack of respect for the Supreme Court and Congress".
[7] He died of cancer on September 14, 2019, in Seabrook Island, South Carolina at age 77.