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Publicity for the Burlington Self-Survey on Human Relations

1953-11-19 New York Times Article: ""Easing of Race Tensions by 20 Fisk Teams Is Reported at Negro College Fund Forum""

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THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY NOVEMBER 19, 1953 Easing of Race Tensions by 20 Fisk Teams Is Reported at Negro College Fund Forum "Anti-tension teams" from Fisk University, working with local volunteer groups have helped improve inter-group relations in a score of American communities the United Negro College Fund forum was told yesterday. Dr. Herman H. Long, director of race relations at the Negro university, which is in Nashville, Tenn., described the work of these teams as the last of three programs for the fund's 1953 campaign. As a result of community self-surveys and concerted local action, he said, discriminatory practices have been eased in several major cities. The surveys, he explained, provide an opportunity for community leaders to assume direct responsibility for promoting democratic practices, through their own discoveries of what is wrong. Among the cities that have participated in "anti-tension" projects, he said, are San Francisco, Minneapolis, Pittsburg, Burlington, Iowa and Kalamazoo, Mich. A similar project in Trenton will soon be completed he added, and a new venture will be started in Baltimore. Mrs. Genevieve F. Steefel. a member of the Minneapolis Mayor's Council on Human Relations and a volunteer worker in the Fisk project in her city, said that as the community survey progressed many civic leaders "became sensitive to conditions around them" "As they came to recognize discrimination and segregation" she added "and to realize their deep and humiliating effects, they began seriously to find ways to get rid of them." The third member of the panel, Mrs. Dorothy Schramm, a former member of the Burlington City Planning Commission, said that the two year survey showed extensive discriminatory practices, particularly in housing, employment and public accommodations. Corrective measures, she asserted "are now under way with the aid of a mayor's committee" William J. Trent Jr. executive director of the fund, was moderator of the program, which was held at the Cosmopolitan Club 129 East Sixty-fifth Street. The fund, which has its headquarters at 22 East Fifty-fourth Street, helps in raising funds for thirty one private Negro colleges and universities. This year's goal is $1,500,000 which would provide 10 per cent of the total budgets of participating institutions.
 
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