Our Coalition:

Our Members
CommUNITY 2000: Building Community in a Nation of Neighborhoods

Appendix A: City Approaches to Community Tensions

This section examines the following ten cities in the United States: Atlanta, GA; Cincinnati, OH; Durham, NC; Houston, TX; Louisville, KY; New Orleans, LA; Omaha, NE; Phoenix, AZ; Pittsburgh, PA; and Richmond, VA. It is noteworthy that according to a recent study of Census 2000 data, each of these cities fall within the top 50 segregated metro areas in the country, for either black-white or Hispanic-white segregation, underscoring the increasing importance for local groups in each of the cities to work together to resolve the tensions that occur under these conditions. Our research in each of these cities focused on eliciting perspectives about the factors that would likely influence the level of local collaboration on community tensions prevention and response.

A Snapshot of Tensions in Ten Cities

For each city, we first sought to determine whether any incidents had occurred in the past few years that might have raised local awareness about community tensions. In the Pittsburgh area, for example, two hate-motivated murders generated extensive national and media attention. In one incident, Ronald Taylor, a black man, was charged with murder and ethnic intimidation for killing three white men in Wilkinsburg, an area outside of Pittsburgh. Mr. Taylor was said to be mentally ill and to have chosen his victims purposely because they were white. Seven days later, Richard Baumhammers, a white male, was charged with both murder and ethnic intimidation in the killings of two Asian-American men, one black man, a Jewish woman and an Indian man.

Several advocates we interviewed spoke of cross burning incidents in their communities, including a cross burning in the yard of a black family living in a rural area outside of Atlanta; and a cross burning on the lawn of a black family living in a predominantly white, working class suburb of Cincinnati. In Houston, the fair housing center and other advocates reported several complaints of harassment, including cross burnings, lodged by black and Latino home owners living in predominantly white neighborhoods.

Housing-related incidents reported included a firebombing of a home owned by an interracial family in Allegheny County (outside of Pittsburgh). An advocate in Atlanta described an incident that had occurred in a suburb thirty miles from the city, involving a white teenager who fired shots into a black family's home, narrowly missing one of the people living there. A Houston advocate described a racially-motivated altercation between a white neighbor and a black neighbor that resulted in the black neighbor's hospitalization.

Phoenix advocates noted that the influx of blacks and Latino families moving into predominantly white metropolitan areas around the central city had led to several racially-motivated incidents. According to an advocate we interviewed, local Phoenix officials worked with INS agents to sweep an entire suburb for illegal day laborers, harassing many legal and long time residents, and heightening tensions throughout the community.

Other types of high profile incidents described during the course of our interviews involved allegations of police brutality and other police misconduct. (While not directly related to the focus of our project, they were cited as examples of activity that heightened awareness of intergroup tensions.) An advocate from Louisville spoke of an incident involving an unarmed black man who was shot seventeen times by the police while he was sitting in his car. Another incident in Louisville that was described to us involved an agitated, mentally ill man who was fatally shot by four police officers in a local park. Omaha advocates described two local incidents involving white police officers who shot unarmed black males. In a high profile incident that occurred outside of Pittsburgh city limits, a black businessman who was prominent in the community was killed by police officers. At trial, the defendant officers were acquitted; one officer was promoted soon after the trial ended.

Because media coverage is a useful indicator of heightened awareness of community tensions issues, we also explored how these incidents were treated in the local press.

  • In Cincinnati, the local media is considered to be an important aspect of the community tensions response strategy, in that it has helped raise public awareness, as well as place pressure on the police to enforce fair housing laws and investigate incidents when they occur.

  • In Phoenix, the media tends to take a relatively evenhanded approach, according to advocates we interviewed. As one activist stated, "the media acts as a watchdog. Nobody wants to look bad in the paper."

  • By contrast, in Louisville, many advocates believe that local media coverage tends to exhibit an inclination "not to ruffle feathers." Louisville advocates did note, however, that in the wake of the police misconduct allegations described above, the press has also alluded to systemic problems within the police department.

Community Tensions Response — A Varied Approach

We then tried to gauge the level of local response to community tensions incidents. Advocates were thus asked about their individual organization's response to the incidents they described, as well as other responses of which they were aware. We received a broad range of answers to this question.

Fair housing organizations
Because the focus of CommUNITY 2000 and our research is on housing-related tensions, we were particularly interested in learning about the role of the local fair housing agency in forming coalitions or partnerships to address the issue.

Of the ten cities studied (each of which have fair housing organizations), our research revealed only one—Cincinnati — where the fair housing center, Housing Opportunities Made Equal (HOME), is at the center of community tensions response. HOME's approach includes a visit to the victim as its first step.

After gaining the victim's permission, HOME alerts the media (if they are not already aware of the incident), and contacts the police, constituency-based organizations, and advocates who will speak out on behalf of the victim and the community.

More typically, however the local fair housing center's role in the cities we studied was limited to referring cases to HUD for investigation, with little work done with the victim or the community.

In Durham, the local fair housing agency, while not at the center of community tensions response, has played an important role. In response to a string of burglaries in the homes of Latino residents, the executive director of the Fair Housing Center teamed up with representatives of the Latino community to educate the recent immigrants about their fair housing rights and remedies, and connect them with the local human relations commission, the police, and local attorneys. Additionally, the coalition met with the police to increase patrols in the neighborhoods where the crimes occurred, and eventually worked with a local community development institution to establish a credit union for Latinos.

Other organizations concerned with community harmony
We also asked about the responses of other groups concerned with community harmony, focusing on approaches that were not coalition-based or collaborative. The following responses are illustrative:

  • In Houston, in response to anti-Semitic incidents in the schools, the Anti-Defamation League held a series of town meetings, school board meetings, and met with several area religious leaders.

  • In Omaha, the NAACP focused their energy on police brutality issues following a high-profile police brutality case.

Collaborations (if any) among groups to address tensions
Beyond individual organizational responses to community tensions, we were most interested in organizational activities that involved collaborations with other groups, and any patterns that could be gleaned from the types of coalitions that had actually been formed.

Of the cities we investigated, the most comprehensive approach by far was the program spearheaded by HOME in Cincinnati. This approach relies heavily on HOME's strong working relationships with constituency based organizations, advocates, and government agencies. These institutions work with HOME as part of a network to aid the victim, make public statements, and enforce the law. Law enforcement is both a part of this network and at the same time held accountable for their actions by the network. Toward this end, HOME works with individual police officers, who are trained to train other officers in the Cincinnati metropolitan region regarding hate crimes laws, response, and victim care. The religious community also participates in this network through a broad based coalition comprising representatives of almost every faith in the Cincinnati area. The Cincinnati network relies heavily on referrals. Response activities are delegated to the organization with the appropriate expertise, or with existing relevant programs.

Recent events in Cincinnati involving allegations of police misconduct have tested this comprehensive approach to addressing community tensions. These events underscore the difficulty of dealing with community tensions, especially where tensions are long entrenched.

Cincinnati's approach is unique in that the coalition-based approach there is an ongoing and sustained effort. By contrast, in other cities, the coalition-based efforts that were described to us have tended to be created to further a specific goal, and often do not continue after the goal has been achieved. Thus, for example, in Louisville, several groups organized a coalition to protest city officials' recent proposal to merge the sizable black city government infrastructure with the primarily white county government, a decision that was projected by some to result in the loss of a number of city jobs by the black community. However, this effort to block the merger was ultimately unsuccessful, and the coalition was eventually dissolved.

In several cities, collaborative responses and coalitions have been developed in the wake of incidents involving law enforcement generally, and alleged police misconduct in particular. For example:

  • In response to the police incidents described above, representatives of more than 30 community organizations, churches, civil rights groups, and other advocates from the Louisville area, formed Citizens Against Police Abuse (CAPA). Today, CAPA meets twice a month and acts as a police watchdog organization, pulling together key constituencies to respond publicly when police-related incidents occur.

  • In Omaha, the Commission on Community Relations was created in response to two high profile incidents of alleged police brutality. The Commission, which consisted of seven working groups focusing on such issues as education, housing, health, and the economy, but lacked the support of the mayor's office, was criticized by local advocates for failing to follow up after publication of its report on the incidents.

  • In Phoenix, four civil rights organizations (the NAACP, the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, and the National Conference for Community and Justice) regularly meet with representatives from city and county government to discuss racial profiling as well as racial discrepancies in the criminal justice system.

  • The Black and White Reunion is an initiative that was a direct result of a shooting in Pittsburgh. As part of this initiative, in January of each year, a conference is hosted by a local church to discuss black/white relations in the community. Through these events, a number of projects have been developed, including a school leadership project, a community art project, and a lawyers' task force on tenant/landlord disputes.

Our research also revealed that most of the inter-organizational collaboration occurs in reaction to high profile incidents of violence. This is true even in Cincinnati, the city with the most sophisticated community tensions response approach of those that we studied. We did find that some areas were beginning to take a more pro-active approach, in support for state hate crimes legislation, for example, or for greater public education about hate crimes issues.

  • In Houston, the Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the NAACP, the National Conference of Community and Justice, and others sent out informational material, shared mailing lists, and otherwise mobilized their constituencies to educate the public about the importance of passing state hate crimes legislation. Significantly, several advocates noted that much of the effectiveness of this coalition was due to the fact that the heads of participat ing organizations knew and trusted each other.

  • In Atlanta, through the Georgia Rural Urban Summit, a coalition of fair housing advocates, civil rights groups, and religious leaders was formed, which served as the chief organizing force for passage of state hate crimes legislation.

  • In Omaha, a local Hate Crimes Coalition was created through a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance.

We also examined the role that fair housing agencies played in coalition-based community-tensions prevention and response. In most of the cities we studied (Cincinnati being a notable exception), the fair housing organization was generally not actively involved in any coalitions that may have been formed to address community tensions.

For example, in Pittsburgh, the fair housing agency was not contacted by, nor did it contact, other agencies regarding a response to the racially-motivated firebombing of the Allegheny County family's home. There are signs in Pittsburgh, however, that this trend may be changing. There, a local hate crimes task force — a coalition of civil rights, intergroup relations, fair housing, and other community organizations — has been formed through a HUD grant to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The aim of this coalition is to address and resolve community tensions in the Pittsburgh area. It is the hope of many in the greater Pittsburgh area that this task force will serve as an impetus for more effective collaborations to address incidents when they occur, as well as build community more generally.

We also found that in some other cities, the local fair housing group was beginning to get involved in efforts directed toward facilitating greater inter-organizational collaboration, even if not specifically directed toward community tensions. For example, in Omaha, the local fair housing center has committed itself to working with other agencies to ensure that fair housing needs are taken into account when housing issues arise in the community.

In short, the cities we examined represented a wide spectrum of collaborative approaches to tensions, with HOME's approach in Cincinnati best exemplifying the meaning of a comprehensive coalition model, and other cities such as Phoenix at the beginning stages. What could account for the low numbers of active coalitions to address community tensions issues? The next section examines the cross-cutting themes uncovered by our research that may provide some answers to this question.