Fletcher, Republican Moderate, Nominated to Head Rights Board

WASHINGTON —  President Bush today nominated Arthur A. Fletcher, who has served in several Republican administrations, to be chairman of the Civil Rights Commission, the White House announced.

Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said Bush hopes Fletcher will reinvigorate the commission, which has been buffeted by congressional criticism for a series of actions it took during the Reagan years.

“I don’t think it helps anybody to start criticizing past performance except to say we think they can do a better job,” Fitzwater said in announcing the nomination.

Fletcher, a moderate Republican who runs a consulting business in Washington, was an early black political supporter of Bush. The President sought to name him nearly a year ago but was unable to because the then-chairman of the panel, William B. Allen, refused to resign.

Allen, whose term ran through 1992, did resign late last year with a blast at Bush as being “too reticent . . . to contribute to the debate on civil rights.”

Fletcher was assistant secretary of labor under President Richard M. Nixon, deputy assistant for urban affairs under President Gerald R. Ford and an adviser to President Ronald Reagan. He also served with Bush at the United Nations in 1971.

Bush met briefly with Fletcher at the White House after the nomination was announced.

Fitzwater said Bush wants to see the commission restored as “an effective institution.”

“We have felt that it could be stronger and more forceful in representing the concerns of minorities and others. We expect it to operate in that fashion,” Fitzwater said.

He said another vacancy on the eight-member commission will be filled soon. The President and Congress each appoint four members to the commission.

The Civil Rights Commission has been criticized in Congress for some positions it adopted during the Reagan Administration, including opposition to affirmative action programs. Major civil rights groups have denounced the panel since Reagan appointees assumed control.

Allen’s tenure at the agency had been marked by controversy and by confrontation with other commissioners. A speech he delivered last year titled “Blacks? Animals? Homosexuals? What is a Minority?” was formally condemned.