Citizens Interracial Committee (CIC) Community Dialogue Tapes MS-0490

Special Collections & University Archives
04/10/2012
5500 Campanile Dr. MC 8050
San Diego, CA 92182-8050
askscua@sdsu.edu


Contributing Institution: Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Citizens Interracial Committee (CIC) Community Dialogue Tapes
Creator: Citizens Interracial Committee
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0490
Physical Description: 0.42 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1967-1969
Language of Material: English .

Scope and Contents

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.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The copyright interests in some of these materials have been transferred to or belong to San Diego State University. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections means that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish.  Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.

Source of Acquisition

Carroll Waymon

Related Materials

Harold K. Brown Papers
Reverend George Walker Smith Papers
Leon Williams Papers
Carlin Integration Case Records
School Integration Task Force Records
Citizens United for Racial Equality (CURE) Records

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, folder title, box number, Citizens Interracial Committee (CIC) Comunity Dialogue Tapes, Special Collections and University Archives, San Diego State University Library.

Historical Note

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.
Under the directorship of Carroll Waymon, the organization responded to complaints, generated reports on racial issues and incidents (such as the Mountain View Park disturbance), created community dialogue through meetings, events, and a news column in The Voice, and sent out speakers and educational materials to educate the public about racial tension in San Diego. Because of city funding, the CIC's activities primarily targeted the metropolitan area.
The County saw a need for a similar agency, and in 1969, it decided to partner with the City in order to create a county-wide Human Relations Commission, which would phase out the CIC. Many believed the City's decision to end CIC funding had more to do with CIC criticism of the City than the creation of a larger commission, and a community backlash against the City's decision ensued. Despite these efforts, the CIC disbanded on December 31, 1969.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Race discrimination--California--San Diego--History--20th century--Sources
San Diego (Calif.)--Race relations--History--20th century--Sources

box 1, item 1

August 18, 1967 (reel #22-1) Item 1

Scope and Contents

This tape is a recording of one of the numerous CIC dialogue sessions with community groups and city officials. This particular session included representatives the city attorney's office, the Urban League, San Diego City Schools, the Union-Tribune, various churches, the police department, city officials, and the mayor.
This recording includes introductions from participants, an overview of the agenda, and a discussion and review of the previous session's meeting minutes, as well as an agreement that certain public officials (the mayor, chief of police, and Councilman Hahn from the Southeast San Diego district) must be present at future meetings. After reviewing these minutes, the group discussed the definition of racism. One participant differentiated between racism and racial discrimination, claiming that San Diego is not racist because racism isn't embedded in its legal structure the way it was in Nazi Germany or South Africa. Other participants concluded that racial discrimination is accepted as normal in San Diego and this issue must be addressed in order to effect change. Mayor Curran also spoke up and stated that semantics makes communication about racial issues complex and difficult. The tape ends in the middle of Mayor Curran's discussion.
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September 1, 1967 (reel #22-2) Item 2

Scope and Contents

This tape is a recording of one of the numerous CIC dialogue sessions with community groups and city officials. This particular session included representatives from the city attorney's office, the Urban League, San Diego City Schools, the Union-Tribune, various churches, the police department, and city officials. Noticeably absent was Councilman Hahn from the Southeast San Diego district, Mayor Curran, and the chief of police.
This session began with introductions and a discussion of the purposes of the meetings. The group also heatedly discussed the absence of the mayor, chief of police, and Southeast San Diego councilman. Tom Johnson mentioned housing discrimination for African American servicemen and insisted that prejudice is the fundamental issue and that the City must recognize its normalcy in order to change it. Others agreed that the white community needs to accept that San Diego is racist and the mayor should articulate the problem to the public. Several participants stated that the media and city officials need to be more active in changing attitudes instead of waiting for a burst of violence. Another participant discussed the San Diego Mexican-American community's stance.
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September 15, 1967 (reel #06-1) Item 3

Scope and Contents

This session begins with some discussion over the official minutes and agenda being sent out too late after previous meetings. It is agreed that the audio recording would serve as the official minutes while the notes taken by a stenographer would serve as the official summary of minutes. It is also settled that an agenda with tentative topics of discussion would be sent to members ahead of time, with new subjects first being introduced, then experts brought in for consultation at a later session.
There was some frustration within the group on account of public officials and Board of Education members being unavailable to attend the bi-monthly meetings, causing their information to be out-of-date. The board was convinced of their essentialness in these matters by virtue of their individual power to reach out to the community and change attitudes about race relations. It was suggested that since continuity in the group (in regards to who attends and how often), and getting timely information through to the public were both of vital importance, a small group of 4-5 members would break off to discuss what kind of continuity would be required, and continue the discussion at the next board meeting.
There was some discussion over whether the definition of racism discussed in the previous meeting would be held and accepted by all group members, and how best to present their findings to the public. There was some disagreement over what action to take next, as some members felt a strong plan would be needed in order to persuade the public. Other members believed the whole community needed to be on the same page in regards to acknowledging the problem of racial disparity in San Diego before any policy decisions should be made. Many members felt the main problem lay in the fact that the African-American community was already suspicious and frustrated over the slow pace of the legislation process. On the other hand, whites too were suspicious of City Hall, and believed minorities would be granted superior benefits if allowed to pursue legislation that would expand civil rights and economic equality.
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September 29, 1967 (reel #06-2) Item 4

Scope and Contents

This session began with further discussion over which individuals and organizational representatives would be most valuable in furthering the aims and ideas of the group. It was emphasized several times that members of the Board of Education and Board of Supervisors, of whom too few were in attendance, were desperately needed in order to implement new policy within their respective organizations. Furthermore, the presence of greater numbers of public officials was considered to be crucial by virtue of their extensive connections within the community, and broad capacity to reach out to and persuade the public at large in regards to the necessity and merit of those new policies. It was agreed that the group should be expanded to include members of the Council of Churches and the Central Labor Council, and in addition that all those invited to attend be leading members within their organizations in order to affect significant change.
After some deliberation, the group broached the initial problem of how minorities were perceived within the community, and how this perception affected their ability to find employment, housing and fair representation in San Diego. The group debated that while the press could be useful in providing a healthy medium for discussion in the community, it was at that time largely in the hands of the white majority and used to spread fear and disinformation about minorities, often pitting one side against another in order to maximize readership. This was especially the case for non-white green-card carriers, who were perceived by whites to be cheating "true Americans" out of work, and keeping the minimum wage down by not participating in strikes. The fact that this narrow view of immigrants was so prevalent was of great concern to many members, who saw the consequences to be an increased number of deportations of non-violent people, and the breaking up of families, neighborhoods and businesses which had been established in San Diego for decades. Members agreed that while the blame should lie with those responsible, the first tasks to combat this mode of thought should be to allow minority voices to become more prominent in public discussion, and to educate those in power of the harms of these policies.
Many in the group voiced their frustrations over the slow-pace of the meetings, so to accommodate this request a motion was passed to further discuss what action to take when conflicting views cannot be settled, and to put specific problems and areas of focus onto the agenda two weeks from that point in order to gather all necessary information and experts to find a solution. The group agreed to begin next weeks' session with discussion over the transit system, and that time for dialogue should be limited so as to allow more time for problem-solving.
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June 7, 1968 (reel #14-1) Item 20

Scope and Contents

This meeting took place 2 days after the assassination of Robert Kennedy.
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June 21, 1968 (reel #14-2) Item 21

Scope and Contents

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July 12, 1968 (reel #15-1) Item 22

Scope and Contents

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July 26, 1968 (reel #16-2) Item 23

Scope and Contents

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August 2 ,1968 (reel #16-1) Item 24

Scope and Contents

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September 6, 1968 (reel #17-1) Item 25

Scope and Contents

Agenda: discussion of police review board.
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September 20, 1968 (reel #17-2) Item 26

Scope and Contents

Agenda: sensitivity training for police officers.
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October 4, 1968 (reel #18-1) Item 27

Scope and Contents

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October 18, 1968 (reel #18-2) Item 28

Scope and Contents

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November 1, 1968 (reel #02-2) Item 29

Scope and Contents

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December 6, 1968 (reel #03-2) Item 30

Scope and Contents

Agenda: education.
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December 20, 1968 (reel #03-1) Item 31

Scope and Contents

Agenda: education.
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January 10, 1969 (reel #04-1) Item 32

Scope and Contents

Agenda: education.
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January 31, 1969 (reel #04-2) Item 33

Scope and Contents

Agenda: communications and news media. Note: this recording has very poor sound quality.
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February 14, 1969 (reel #02-1) Item 34

Scope and Contents

Agenda: communications.
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February 28, 1969 (reel #02-1) Item 35

Scope and Contents

Agenda: the news media and the minority community.
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March 14, 1969 (reel #21-2) Item 36

Scope and Contents

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March 28, 1969 (reel #05-1) Item 37

Scope and Contents

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May 9, 1969 - part 1? (reel #20-1) Item 39

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May 9, 1969 - part 2? (reel #20-2) Item 40

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June 6, 1969 (reel #19-1) Item 41

Scope and Contents

Click here  to view meeting minutes from this session.
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Special Report on 'Sunday in the Park' July 13, 1969 [booklet] Item 43 August 11, 1969