Statutory Structure
The Illinois Human Rights Act [775 ILCS 5] directs the
activities of the Illinois Department of Human Rights
and the Illinois Human Rights Commission. The
Director of the Illinois Department of Human Rights
(“DHR”) reports to the Governor and sits on the Human
Services Cabinet.
History of IDHR’s Creation
The Illinois Human Rights Act was introduced by the
administration in 1979 to consolidate existing laws
and administrative processes addressing civil rights
in Illinois. The emergence of the new agency may be
attributed to two events occurring during 1978. The
first was the formation of a Cost Control Task Force that
was charged with examining the structure of all state
agencies to see how a more effective and efficient state
government could be created. The second was the
national convention of Operation PUSH, convened in
the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bakke decision,
where civil rights advocates called for a strengthening
of civil rights laws in all the states.
One issue was the existence of eleven Illinois statutes
covering various aspects of discrimination. State laws
prohibited employment discrimination, prohibited age
discrimination, required equal opportunity for persons
with disabilities, required affirmative action in state
government, required fairness in lending, prohibited
discrimination in credit card issuance, prohibited
real estate brokers from discriminating, prohibited
blockbusting, and prohibited discrimination against
families with children in real estate transactions. The
various prohibitions were enforceable through a variety of
administrative, civil and criminal mechanisms, although
in some instances, no enforcement mechanism had
been established. The limited type of discrimination
covered by criminal statutes were generally not
enforced. Some remedies depended on the filing of a
lawsuit and were thus not realistically available to the
many complainants unable to afford an attorney. The
major administrative agency handling discrimination,
the Fair Employment Practices Commission (“FEPC”),
was limited to employment matters and was laboring
under a severe backlog of charges it was unable to
process. The Illinois Commission on Human Relations
(“COHR”) and Illinois Department of Equal Employment
Opportunity (“DEEO”) had no enforcement authority.
A person experiencing discrimination was thus left
with the frustrating task of sorting out which, if any,
governmental unit would cover the type of injury
sustained. The only action available to a victim of
housing discrimination, for example, was to request the
state’s attorney to file a criminal complaint or to hire an
attorney, and these avenues were only available if the
complainant was disabled. If not, the only remedy was
potential revocation of the broker’s real estate license.
Businesses, labor organizations, government agencies,
and real estate interests were also frustrated by the
lack of legal and administrative clarity. Defending
against unfounded charges of discrimination and
taking steps to comply with the various laws and
administrative rules was difficult and costly. Both the
Governor’s Task Force and the various members of the
civil rights community saw the need for consolidating
the laws and administrative mechanisms pertaining to
civil rights in Illinois. Governor Thompson introduced
Senate Bill 1377, the Illinois Human Rights Act, in
1979. After many proposed amendments and much
controversy and opposition, the bill passed the Senate
with 54 out of 59 senators voting in favor. The House
then passed it as well.
Governor Thompson signed the bill, creating Public
Act 81-1216, on December 6, 1979 at the Chicago
Historical Society on the desk at which President
Abraham Lincoln had signed the Emancipation
Proclamation in 1863. The Governor then appointed
a 95-member implementation task force headed by
James Compton of the Chicago Urban League, with
other members coming from bar associations, the
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,
the Civil Rights Commission, the League of Women
Voters, the NAACP, Operation PUSH, Senators
Harold Washington and Dawn Clark Netsch, and
Representatives Barbara Flynn-Currie, Jim Reilly and
Jim Taylor. The task force made plans to consolidate
the personnel, rules, records and activities of the
three agencies without disrupting ongoing operations.
They also proposed and obtained legislative
Illinois Department of Human Rights FY18 Annual Report
6
approval for several clarifications and modifications to
the new law. They also needed to develop the fourmillion-dollar budget for the new agency and get it
approved. Most importantly, this group had the task
of screening candidates for the positions of director of
the Department of Human Rights and Commissioners
for the Illinois Human Rights Commission and making
recommendations to the Governor.
On June 19, 1980, the Governor named Joyce E.
Tucker as the first director of the Illinois Department
of Human Rights. She was the first African-American
female to become a permanent head of a state cabinet
department.
Illinois Department of Human Rights
1979 – The Illinois Human Rights Act merged the
Fair Employment Practices Commission, the Illinois
Department of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the
Commission on Human Relations. The Act prohibited
discrimination in employment, housing, financial credit
and public accommodations because of race, color,
sex, religion, ancestry, national origin, age, physical
or mental disability, unfavorable military discharge,
and marital status, as well as retaliation for opposing
discrimination. The Act created the Illinois Department
of Human Rights to receive, investigate and conciliate
charges of unlawful discrimination, and to undertake
affirmative action and public education activities. Also
created was the Illinois Human Rights Commission,
a body with the function of hearing and adjudicating
cases brought before it by the Department. The
purpose behind creating the Commission was the
separation of the enforcement and judicial functions.
The Act also repealed and replaced the state laws
that were administered by the predecessor agencies
as well as some other Illinois statutes addressing
civil rights issues. Age and marital status were new
protections added with the Human Rights Act.
1980 – The new department began operations on July
1, 1980.
Some highlights from IDHR’s early years:
- Exercising its initiatory authority, the Department
initiated a charge in 1980 challenging the
mandatory retirement policy of the Chicago City
Colleges, the first case testing the age provision
of the Illinois Human Rights Act. The Human
Rights Commission upheld DHR’s position and
this decision was upheld by the Illinois Supreme
Court in the Fall of 1981 [See Bd. of Trustees
of Cmty. Coll. Dist. No. 508 v. Human Rights
Comm’n, 88 Ill. 2d 22, 429 N.E.2d 1207 (1981)].
- During Fiscal Year 1990, more than 100 new
staff members were hired and trained to fill new
positions and vacancies. This action came on the
heels of administration and legislative efforts that
resulted in more than one million dollars being
added to the operations budget of DHR.
- During Fiscal Year 1991, the harsh realities of state
agency layoffs prompted CMS to establish a new
procedure whereby DHR staff trained Affirmative
Action officers to analyze layoff plans for possible
adverse impact prior to any layoff.
- During FY1993, a supplemental appropriation
was passed (SB 312) to address cases held
over for investigation from the FEPC, prior to the
creation of IDHR.
- Effective July 1, 1993, bidders for public
contracts were required to have written policies
concerning sexual harassment, and state
agencies were required to establish, maintain
and carry out continuing programs concerning
sexual harassment (PA 87-1257).
- In 1994, DHR began a pilot mediation program as
an alternative to an investigation of the charge.
- During FY1997, DHR developed a web page to
link to the State of Illinois’ website.