Clinton's Initiative on Race
Clinton's Initiative on Race, launched on June 14, 1997, aimed to foster a national dialogue about race relations in the United States. Delivered during President Bill Clinton's "One America" speech at the University of California, San Diego, the initiative sought to address racial tensions and enhance economic opportunities for all Americans. Clinton emphasized the importance of confronting the nation's complex racial history and called for a "candid conversation" to break down barriers that affect societal interactions and perceptions.
To facilitate this dialogue, an Advisory Board was established, comprising a diverse group of individuals from various backgrounds, including historians, community leaders, and civil rights advocates. The board was tasked with promoting understanding of racial issues and generating community initiatives to address these concerns. By engaging citizens and leaders across the nation, the initiative aimed to explore critical areas such as education, housing, healthcare, and the administration of justice. Clinton characterized the challenge of improving race relations as both the nation’s "greatest challenge" and "greatest opportunity," stressing that meaningful change would require collective commitment from all sectors of society.
Clinton's Initiative on Race
On June 14, 1997, President Bill Clinton unveiled the Initiative on Race in his “One America” speech, delivered at the University of California at San Diego’s commencement ceremony. The Initiative on Race promoted a national dialogue on race relations in the United States. This dialogue was to take place largely through open meetings around the country and was designed to produce a plan to calm racial tensions and promote economic opportunities for all Americans.
By executive order, Clinton created an Advisory Board of seven individuals representing diverse perspectives on the race issue: historian John Hope Franklin (chair); Linda Chavez-Thompson, executive vice president of the AFL-CIO; the Reverend Susan Johnson Cook; former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean; Los Angeles attorney Angela Oh; Robert Thomas, chief executive officer of Nissan, USA; and former Mississippi governor William Winter. The board was charged with promoting a constructive national dialogue to confront and work through concerns on race, increasing understanding of both the history and course of the country with respect to race relations, encouraging community leaders across the nation to develop initiatives to soothe racial tensions, and producing solutions to racial problems. The Department of Justice was to provide financial and administrative support, and the board was to disband on September 30, 1998, unless extended by presidential authorization.
In his speech, President Clinton called race relations the nation’s “greatest challenge” and “greatest opportunity.” He spoke of the United States’ complicated history of race relations, which has been marked by both progress and division. The challenge, he said, was to “break down the barriers in our lives, our minds and our hearts.” For this to happen, the country had to engage in “a candid conversation on the state of race relations today.” Clinton promised to help lead the American people “in a great and unprecedented conversation about race.” In addition to the dialogue on race, Clinton’s speech focused on expanding opportunities to all people—which included using affirmative action “in the right way” and ensuring educational opportunities—and demanding that each individual as well as the justice system take responsibility for respecting the rights of all citizens and enforcing each person’s civil rights. Clinton also called on the advisory board to examine problem areas of “substantial impact,” including education, economic opportunity, housing, health care, and administration of justice.
The Initiative on Race was not meant to seek a quick or easy fix. The multicultural democracy envisioned by President Clinton would require commitments from government, businesses, communities, and individuals. In his speech, Clinton suggested that the ultimate solution must come from the human spirit.
Bibliography
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Ledwidge, Mark, Kevern Verney, and Inderjeet Parmar. Barack Obama and the Myth of a Post-Racial America. New York: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Page, Clarence. "Initiative on Race Report, Like President Clinton, Is Too Timid." Chicago Tribune. Chicago Tribune, 20 Sept. 1998. Web. 13 Apr. 2015.
Walker, Samuel. Presidents and Civil Liberties from Wilson to Obama: A Story of Poor Custodians. New York: Cambridge UP, 2012. Print.