Description

One of CIC's primary activities was to hold biweekly meetings called "community dialogues" to discuss broad issues such as racism, police sensitivity, education, and employment discrimination within the city of San Diego. The number of attendees at any given meeting was usually quite high--perhaps as many as 30 or more persons--representing an extremely wide variety of backgrounds, including city officials, educators, administrators, religious leaders, law enforcement, journalists, and minority community spokespersons. This meeting continued the dialog from the preceding one regarding San Diego police, the need for a police review board of some kind for citizens' grievances, and for sensitivity training of police officers. No conclusion was reached about the review board, but the subcommittee was charged with continuing to research the idea and to involve police officials in the discussion. It was revealed that San Diego police officers had not received any training specifically aimed to improve or enhance relationships with minority communities, and the CIC resolved to hold itself accountable to set up sensitivity training for the police. Black activist Kenny Denman gave a speech in response to the likely dismissal of Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther Party leader, from the University of California at Berkeley, and subsequent derogatory remarks in the media about the man. Along with California Governor Reagan, San Diego's Mayor Curran had also denigrated Mr. Cleaver in the press. Mr. Denman protested the lack of any African-American voice in the media to counter the attack; he also wished to inform the public that the Black Panthers were no threat to the white community, that they weren't anti-white, they were just pro-African American. There was applause for his speech (02:17:09). San Diego's district attorney had proposed an ordinance preventing anyone charged with a felony while engaged in any activity related to the civil rights movement from being eligible for City or civil service employment. Some felt this proposed ordinance was racist, leveled against African Americans to "keep them in their place." George Stevens spoke angrily (02:23:30), charging white racists with making it "very hard for a black man to do right," and pushing more and more African Americans to join the Black Panthers as they realize that the "white man" is not interested in integration, or in giving African Americans justice. The CIC resolved to use its influence with the media to allow Denman to tell "the other side of the story." 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. The tape constitutes the minutes. but a summary consists of eight pages of handwritten notes on stenographic-notebook paper, with names preceded by numbers from the tape recorder counter (009-599), and comments on the right.