- One America Initiative
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Initiative staff with Bill Clinton in June 1998
On June 14, 1997, U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton announced One America in the 21st Century: The President's Initiative on Race. This initiative, established with Executive Order 13050, was a critical element in President Clinton's effort to prepare his country to embrace diversity. The main thrust of the effort was convening and encouraging community dialogue throughout the country designed to heal racial and ethnic divisions wherever they exist.
Contents
Background
President Clinton envisioned an America based on opportunity for all, responsibility from all, and a unified community of all Americans. He was convinced that, even as America rapidly was becoming the world's first truly multi-racial democracy, race relations remained an issue that too often divided the nation and kept the American dream from being real for everyone who worked for it.
Among models of diversity in schools, One America Initiative on Race focused on Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the most culturally, linguistically diverse school districts in the country. The President's Advisory Board on Race commissioned a Case Study on a local Elementary School in Fairfax, Virginia[1] and their Report "America in the 21st Century: Forging a New Future Report"[2] quotes Linda Chavez-Thompson, about her visit to Bailey's Elementary in December 1997 in her capacity as member of the Advisory Board on Race
- "[I]t is absolutely delightful that the children at the elementary level don’t know what color is. . .They understand diversity...they celebrate their differences. One young student said, 'And that makes us one. We all are the same inside.' And I got that very distinctly from the curriculum, from the expression of the parents, from the expression of the teachers...I was absolutely blown away by how intense these young fourth and fifth graders were in expressing why to them there is absolutely no difference between all of them, no matter what their name is and no matter what the color of their skin.[3]
Advisory board
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Judith A. Winston
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Suzan D. Johnson Cook
Judith A. Winston Served as Executive Director.
Reports
See also
External links
- Clinton Library Website
- The American Presidency Project
- Official site hosted at NARA
- Bailey's Elementary: Educational Strategies for Making Diversity an Asset
References
- ^ Bailey's Elementary:Educational Strategies for Making Diversity an Asset
- ^ America in the 21st Century: Forging a New Future Report
- ^ The President’s Initiative on Race, One America in the 21st Century: Forging a New Future (1998), p. 27
- This article incorporates public domain material from nara.gov
Categories:- 1997 establishments
- Clinton Administration initiatives
- 1997 in law
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