The President's Initiative on Race Highlights Promising Practices Through the Internet

Washington, D.C. (November 6, 1997) -- The President's Initiative on Race today unveiled the first set of Promising Practices -- efforts that are successfully bridging racial divides in communities across America -- that interested individuals and organizations can participate in or replicate in their own communities, schools, businesses, or religious organizations. This announcement follows the President's pledge to inform Americans about local efforts that promote racial reconciliation.

These Promising Practices are part of several new features that the Initiative launched on its One America Web site. The President's Initiative on Race added the new features to encourage dialogue using the Information Superhighway.

Vice President Al Gore acknowledged the importance of the Internet as a vehicle to engage all Americans in a national dialogue. "The Internet offers new and powerful opportunities for people of different backgrounds to connect with one another," the Vice President said. "The boundaries of race, gender, and class that often divide us as Americans, become less relevant in this new Information Age."

Among the 14 Promising Practices are organizations such as Team Harmony, based in Boston, MA, which works to promote understanding and respect for differences among young people through participation in interracial projects. Another is DuPage Media and Community Network, based in Wheaton, IL, which works to improve the coverage of people of color in newspapers, television, and radio.

Professor John Hope Franklin, chairman of the Advisory Board to the President's Initiative on Race, stressed the value of recognizing existing Promising Practices. "It is extremely important that we recognize and work with groups that promote dialogue on race and racism in the United States. These organizations are the foundation for a national movement toward racial reconciliation," Franklin said.

Additional links on the One America Website include: "One America on the Move," which updates activities and accomplishments of the Initiative; "Face of the Nation," which shares current demographic information on the racial and ethnic composition of the United States; and the "Advisory Board," which shares information on the Advisory Board members, including a weekly letter on one Advisory Board member.

The Advisory Board will meet again on November 19, 1997 at the University of Maryland, College Park. The Initiative's first Presidential meeting on race is scheduled for December 3, 1997.