The December 15th meeting was one well-attended, including the mayor and members of the city council. Also attending were a number of "observers" from the community, who gave personal testimonials and shared perceptions and reactions, particularly concerning employment issues within the "power structure" and also their impressions of the Economic Opportunity Commission (EOC). The general consensus seemed to be that talking was not enough, that the situation was urgent, and required action.

People identifying as as members of a "minority" clearly expressed their discontent with the lack of progress or actions aimed at improving the employment situation for their communities, stating that other than hiring a few African-American bus drivers, nothing had been done. There were several emotionally charged moments (notably at 1:08:39 and 2:01:37) in which minority representatives claimed that placement examinations and selection processes for employing members of minorities were unfair, specifically, utilizing examinations or qualification sets that were designed by, and in favor of, persons of a "white" majority, which were unsuited for use with individuals outside the mainstream culture. These perceptions also clearly included the belief that only bottom-level, "dead-end" jobs were available to members of minorities, who had no means to advance their status or to be promoted within the systems that employed them. It was asserted that the same inappropriate criteria had been utilized to staff the War on Poverty agency structures, thereby perpetuating the problems that they were created to resolve. The Director of the Leadership Training Program (LTP), one such War on Poverty program, was present at this meeting, and spoke eloquently on the problems inherent in the system. He described the LTP as a program originally designed to educate minority young people to lead their people in advocating for themselves, fighting oppressive practices, and effecting changes in the system. However, the power structure (the "majority") was not interested in such an agenda, and the program had to be rewritten as a careers preparation concept in order for it to be accepted by them. He went on to say the War on Poverty isn't working, because even those African Americans who get good positions don't go back and help their community, that they begin to think and act like the dominant white majority.

It was proposed that certain actions be taken, namely, to take a look at civil-service entrance examinations and restructure them to be more relative to the particulars of the job, so they are not just measuring adaptability to the mainstream culture; to establish an office to review the entire system, to come up with new ways to utilize the resources that minorities have to offer, and to select an African American to lead the office who knows the real problems inherent in the present system; and finally, to bring pressure to bear on public officials and others who make promises of taking action to be accountable for those promises.

The meetings were moderated by CIC Executive Director Carroll Waymon, and his voice is often the first one heard in the audio recordings of the meetings.

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