Racism Project Given Go-Ahead
Diocesan Press Service. August 31, 1972 [72120]
(NOTE: The article below is reprinted from INTERCHANGE, Diocese of Southern Ohio, 1972 Convention issue, page 1.)
The Institutional Racism Sub-committee's proposed Phase II Action Development Program was approved by the Diocesan Convention, held May 12 and 13 at the Netherland- Hilton Hotel in Cincinnati.
Delegates passed a resolution giving an action development team the responsibility of working with the bishop and staff in effecting, as rapidly as possible, the recommendations contained in the Sub-committee's lengthy and carefully studied report on institutional racism in the diocese.
Recommendations -- 17 in all -- call for increased participation by Blacks (and other minority groups) in the life of the Church in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.
Staff Recommendations
In staff areas, recommendations call for volunteer Black consultants to be added to all project teams by the fall of 1972; for a Black consultant to attend all scheduled diocesan staff meetings by the fall of 1972; for a Black executive to be added to diocesan staff by January, 1973 and for Blacks to be involved in the selection of these persons.
Finance Recommendations
In finance areas, recommendations call for $100,000 to be set aside in the annual budget, beginning in fiscal year 1973, to specifically fund programs and projects which will directly empower minority groups in the diocese.
Recommendations further call for the bishop to appoint a committee which will allocate the $100,000 and for the establishment of criteria for project selection and funding based, generally, on criteria drawn up for the General Convention Special Program.
Membership Recommendations
In their report, the Institutional Racism Sub-committee stated that the process of nominating, electing and appointing members to the decision-making bodies of the diocese does not result in a representative number of Blacks.
The Sub-committee recommends that at least two Black persons be appointed to serve on the Finance Committee of the diocese; that the diocesan staff and Diocesan Council develop criteria for all appointive positions in the decision-making bodies of the diocese and that these criteria reflect the findings of the research team; that Blacks be specifically appointed to committees of Diocesan Council where membership on Council is not a prerequisite for committee membership; that meetings of diocesan groups be set at hours and locations which will allow participation by individuals representing a cross section of the diocese.
Two recommendations of the Sub-committee were carried out prior to Convention. They asked that two Blacks be appointed to the Nominating Committee for the Convention and that the Nominating Committee publish prior to Convention a list of criteria for offices to be filled by election during the Convention.
Programs/Issues Recommendations
The research team made recommendations in two program areas.
They asked that 20 Black persons be enlisted as trainers at group process and educational design levels and for a program of white consciousness with at least three workshops for 60 participants.
They also asked that Procter summer conferences, beginning in 1973, hire qualified Black staff persons; that provision be made for scholarships for Black participants; that there be provision of material resources focused on all aspects of Black consciousness and history and that every conference held have more than 40 percent, but no less than 30 percent of participants and staff who are Black.
Approval of the report and its recommendations followed two years of work by the Institutional Racism Sub-committee -- itself authorized by the 1970 Diocesan Convention.
During the last several months, the group endeavored to inform all lay delegates, clergy and other interested persons about their report.
In addition to publishing the 74-page Institutional Racism Report in its entirety for distribution to diocesan staff members and all clergy, the Sub-committee distributed summaries to all delegates at pre-Convention meetings.
Persons were encouraged to question the report during all four pre-Convention meetings and during a hearing the evening before its enactment at Convention.
Most Convention delegates were present for all or a portion of the two-hour hearing and though questions were raised about parts of the report, nobody voiced a total rejection of the Sub-committee's work.
During discussion of the resolution prior to its passage the last day of Convention, 28 persons asked to speak to the assemblage concerning the resolution -- 23 in favor, five opposed. Debate rotating between those for and against was called off after the first 11 persons spoke because there were no other persons to speak against it.
(Note: During the Convention, the Rt. Rev. John McGill Krumm, Bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio, told the delegates: "So far as I know, we are the first diocese in the American Church to raise the issue of institutional racism in this sharp a way and to consider such far-reaching proposals to deal with it.")