One of CIC's primary activities was to hold massive 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 community spokespersons. 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 collection's sound recordings represent nearly 2 years' worth of CIC community dialogue meetings, from August 1967 to June 1969. They were digitized from the original reel-to-reel tapes, and total approximately 100 hours of footage. These recordings provide insight into the workings of a major metropolitan city engaging in discussions of race relations on an unprecedented scale. Of particular note is the meeting recorded the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Reel #12-1). Several of the recordings include brief meeting minutes with the agenda, list of attendees, and some information regarding the content of the meeting.

Formed in 1963 because of increasing racial tension, the Citizens Interracial Committee (CIC) sought to create community dialogues to educate people about racial issues and concerns within city limits. In 1964, the CIC became an official non-profit organization and received city funding. Initially, the CIC consisted of a director (Carroll Waymon), a secretary, a consultant and a clerk. Over the next several years the city increased CIC funding, allowing the agency to expand to include other employees and services.

0.42 Linear Feet

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