News In Brief
| Washington
Former GOP party chief passed over for rights post
President Reagan refused to reappoint former GOP chairwoman Mary Louise Smith to the reorganized Civil Rights Commission Tuesday, sparking charges he reneged on a deal reshaping the panel.
Mrs. Smith, who favored racial quotas in hiring and busing to achieve racial integration, has charged that Mr. Reagan has not done enough to hire minorities and women for senior govermment posts.
In place of Mr. Smith, Reagan named Esther Gonzalez-Arroyo Buckley, a Hispanic schoolteacher and chairman of the Republican Party in Webb County. He also named Morris B. Abram, a New York lawyer and former president of Brandeis University, and John H. Bunzel, former president of San Jose State University and now a research fellow at Stanford University.
Congressional Democrats and civil rights groups charged that Reagan's decision was a breach of a promise made by presidential counselor Edwin Meese that the new commission would retain Mrs. Smith. Mr. Meese has denied such a deal was made.
