One America: The President's Initiative on Race will send representatives from its advisory board to hold a public meeting at the University on March 16-17. Former Mississippi Governor William Winter and Duke Professor Emeritus of History John Hope Franklin, chair of the advisory board, will attend.

President Clinton announced the Initiative last June, and the advisory board began holding public meetings in September. The goals of these meetings are to encourage local communities to identify pertinent issues regarding race relations as well as to suggest programs to address problems. The first town hall forum was in Akron, Ohio; other meetings have been held in Fairfax, Virginia, and Phoenix, Arizona. Although early press reports criticized the slow start of the effort, more recent articles cite the increasing effectiveness of the process.

Governor Winter expressed an interest in having the effort include Mississippi and has worked with Southern Studies alumnae Susan Glisson to bring the advisory board to campus. Glisson is chairing a program committee of students and alumni who are working with a planning committee of University administrators and Oxford leaders to coordinate the event. Dialogue groups representing ten constituencies--art, environment, religion, housing, health care, labor, government, community organizing, education, and business--are discussing issues and will select representatives to meet with the advisory board at a public meeting in March. The meeting will consist of a dialogue between the constituency representatives and the advisory board followed by an open forum.

"We have accepted the challenge implicit in the President's Initiative and are beginning dialogue on race relations in Mississippi," said Glisson. "We hope the March event will be a catalyst for a coordinated effort to address and rectify racial injustice in Oxford and across the state. It will take all of us working together for a better future."

For information about the event, contact Susan Glisson at the Center; telephone 601-232-5993; e-mail glisson@cssc.olemiss.edu.