The U.S. Civil Rights Commission, as a federal fact-finding agency, relied heavily upon individual witnesses to inform the panel chairman and members. But the panel also needed to ensure members had enough information going into the hearings to make informed conclusions from the testimony provided. The Civil Rights Commission commissioned a staff of advisors and subject-area experts to compile information and gather documents, maps, and other examples to provide a common knowledge base among the panel members. This information base would then become part of the official record. This report contained the most basic and generalized data to orient the members of the panel to the scope of the issues they would be investigating.