wfn.org | NCCCUSA Spring 2000 Racism Consultation

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2227
Email: news@ncccusa.org  Web: www.ncccusa.org

82NCC7/13/99    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NCC "MORATORIUM ON RACISM" SET FOR SPRING 2000

 NEW YORK - The National Council of Churches plans to convene a 
"Moratorium on Racism" in Chicago March 30-April 1, 2000.  In the 
works since last year, the meeting's venue was chosen, ironically, 
not long before the killing spree by Benjamin Nathaniel Smith across 
Illinois and Indiana.

 The planned convocation will bring religious and community 
racial justice activists together for a "focused and strategic 
approach to racism," said Sammy Toineeta, the NCC's Racial Justice 
Director.

 "We will explore the breadth and depth of racism and the 
impact it has in U.S. Asian, Indigenous, African American, Latino/a 
and European American communities," she said, "and develop plans and 
strategies for interfaith action over the next four to five years."

 Chicago was chosen as the venue because it is an urban area 
with a diverse population, and centrally located, Ms. Toineeta said.  

Catalyzing the calling of the "Moratorium on Racism" at this 
time have been such high-profile events as the dragging death of 
James Byrd, an African American man in Jasper, Texas; school 
shootings; the rise in white supremacist hate groups, and the on-
going burning of churches and defiling of synagogues and mosques, 
she said.  "Which part of the problem can we best address?  That 
will be the focus of the moratorium's deliberations."

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