Harvard Law School (HLS) Professor Christopher Edley Jr. has been recommended to the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) announced last Friday.

Gephardt said he expects that Edley, an expert in the field of race and civil rights, will add much to the civil rights commission.

"The commission needs invigoration and new ideas and Chris Edley Jr," Gephardt said in a speech at the ARCO Forum yesterday.

The USCCR is an independent, bipartisan, fact-finding agency of the executive branch. Established under the auspices of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the USCCR's duties include the investigating complaints, collecting data, appraising policy and issuing public service announcements in support of civil rights.

Gephardt described the USCCR as "promoting tolerance and providing America with a better understanding of issues of race and civil rights."

Edley, Gephardt said, would help uphold this mission.

"Chris Edley is one of our nation's foremost thinkers on issues related to race and civil rights." Gephardt said in a press release. "I believe he will make a substantial contribution."

"I know that Chris Edley will devote his substantial intellectual energy and passion to his work as a member of the Commission," Gephardt said in the statement.

A professor at the Law School since 1981, Edley is the founding co-director of the Civil Rights Project, a recently founded Harvard think tank.

He has been the senior advisor for President Clinton's Race Initiative and consultant to the President's Advisory Board onRacial Reconciliation since 1997.

Edley has written a book, Not All Black &White: Affirmative Action, Race and AmericanValues. In 1995, as special counsel to thePresident, he led the White House review ofaffirmative action programs.

Edley could not be reached for commentyesterday