Purposes of CommUNITY 2000: Developing, Documenting and Reporting

In 1992, outraged African American residents of Los Angeles stormed their city's streets, bent on destruction. In what would come to be known as "days of rage," the rioting mobs were reacting to a jury verdict that acquitted four white L.A. police officers in the brutal beating of Rodney King, a black man.

The burning city illuminated the racial woes of an entire country. People of every race and religion, every social and economic strata were pointing fingers and calling names. Amidst the cacophony, King asked, "Can we all get along?"

The question seemed sadly rhetorical — another way of reiterating that racial tension, discord and misunderstanding are tragic and inescapable facts of American life.

Implemented almost a decade later, CommUNITY 2000 is a national, federally funded project that takes the opposite view. In essence, it asks Rodney King's question in a profoundly different way: "How can we all get along?" Far from rhetorical, this question assumes positive, concrete solutions.

The CommUNITY 2000 concept is predicated on the belief that the United States is a nation of neighborhoods, and if its neighborhoods are places of peace, harmony and good will, its entire civic life will be so.

In order to have harmonious neighborhoods, however, people must be free to choose where and with whom they want to live. When they make their choices, their neighbors must accept them. Too often this does not happen. Instead, our inability to "get along" as a society takes root when people in communities — whether politicians, mortgage lenders, police officers, or neighbors — do not welcome or outright reject those perceived as different. In rare instances, simmering resentments can lead to the most egregious manifestation of tensions: hate crimes.

CommUNITY 2000 is a nationwide effort designed to prevent, respond to and reconcile tensions that arise when people make choices about where to live — in other words, when they exercise their rights under the Fair Housing Act of 1968. It is a coalition of civil rights and fair housing organizations, both national and local. The coalition's goal is three-fold:

To develop and implement a variety of specific strategies which foster good will in neighborhoods nationwide.
To evaluate and document the processes and outcomes of those strategies.
To compile a Menu of Strategies that details which programs were successful, and why. The Menu is available for use and adaptation by any person or group looking for ways to reduce tensions in their own neighborhoods. The Menu of Strategies is CommUNITY 2000's answer to the question, "Can we all get along?" It says, "Yes. Here's how."