The Nation - News from March 23, 1989

U.S. Civil Rights Commission Chairman William Barclay Allen said that President Bush will have to come to him directly if he wants him to resign. The White House said Bush has no intention of asking Allen to quit but made it clear that a replacement was being readied. “It would make no sense for me to do it (resign voluntarily),” Allen said in the wake of reports that Bush planned to replace him with Arthur A. Fletcher, a moderate Republican and one of Bush’s early black political supporters. Allen said he has been trying to meet with Bush since the election, but has received no response from the President or anyone else at the White House. His term does not expire until 1992.