Berl I. Bernhard, second from right, staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, talks with attorney George Barrett, left, Rev. Kelly Miller Smith and another person before speaking at the opening session of the 4th annual meeting of the Tennessee Council on Human Relations at Vanderbilt University Divinity School on Oct. 27, 1961. Bernhard spoke at the Maxwell House Hotel before 140 blacks and whites at the event about desegregation in Tennessee and other states. Frank Empson / The Tennessean