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- Multi-Media Collection
Equal Opportunity Commission and 200th Anniversary Celebration, 1967
The meeting was attended by about 25 members, whose plan was to discuss the Economic Opportunity Commission (EOC) and various sentiments about its hiring and status in the community. The group sidetracked to the planning for the 200th Anniversary Celebration of San Diego, and then to an arrest which had recently taken place, resulting in perceptions by African Americans of racial profiling, who subsequently wanted some answers about how and why police handled as it as they did. An attempt was made to return to the day's topic (EOC), but objections were raised because key public officials were not present.
Emotions began to run higher (at about 53:50 in the audiotape) as some members argued that nothing was changing fast enough, that soon the issues would really heat up as schools let out for the summer, and groups of youth would be roaming the hot streets day and night, particularly in southeast San Diego. One police official spoke up for law enforcement's belief that changes would inevitably be slow, adding that training and education were the key to facilitating change. Several voices claimed that facilities for youth needed to be built so they would have somewhere to go, and something to look forward to, as an alternative to roaming the streets and getting into trouble. Once again, there were complaints that nothing could be accomplished without city officials in positions of power present to support such projects. Another attendee commented that the police needed to educate themselves better about who people are and what's going on in the communities, instead of targeting black nationalists and Black Muslims.
In the last half of the meeting, the topic shifted back once again to the 200th Anniversary Celebration of San Diego and how to assert the presence of minority people at all levels and in all the stages of planning. It then shifts again to poor attendance, particularly by public officials whose presence was felt to be essential, if any real change was to take place. Suggestions were made that every member should take part in bringing pressure to bear on those who should be attending and either had dropped out, or failed to commit at all. Finally, a couple of parting shots were made about the mayor, who chose to go to Mexico City for something he deemed more important, without sending a representative. It was also agreed to enlist the press to publicize what this group (CIC) was working on, the critical importance of these issues, and to bring more pressure to bear on public officials to commit to being part of these dialogues. The discussion of the Economic Opportunity Commission was slated to resume at the next meeting of the CIC.
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.
- Multi-Media Collection
- San Diego State University Library and Information Access, Special Collections and University Archives