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When did you begin at CRS? When did you leave?
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Angel Alderete
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Can you tell us when you began working at CRS?
Answer:
March of 1970.
Angel Alderete
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
I came to work for the agency in 1970.
Leo Cardenas
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you begin working as a mediator or conciliation
specialist at CRS?
Answer:
In February of 1971.
Question:
When did you leave the agency?
Answer:
I retired in November of 1995.
Bob Ensley
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Bob, when did you begin working as a mediator or conciliator for
CRS?
Answer:
In September, 1970.
Question:
And when did you leave?
Answer:
Late 1988.
Edward Howden
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
When did you begin working as a mediator or conciliator at
CRS?
Answer:
I began in February, 1967.
Question:
When did you leave CRS?
Answer:
I retired in October, 1986.
Question:
What was your role while you were at CRS?
Answer:
Well, I served in various roles. My first role was Field Coordinator for the western region;
the later title was simply Western Regional Director. Then a few years later I moved to another
position, and another person came in as Regional Director. Finally, I became a Senior
Conciliation Specialist (mediator) and I served in that capacity until I retired.
Bob Hughes
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you begin working as a mediator or conciliator at CRS?
Answer:
Different dates for each of those. As a conciliator, July 1967. As a mediator, July of 1975.
Question:
When did you leave the agency?
Answer:
September 1994.
Ernest Jones
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
Can you start off by telling us when you began with CRS?
Answer:
Initially I came to work with CRS in 1972. About 4 months after I came to work, we were
hit
with this rather large reduction in force. About 75-80 percent of the staff was being laid off.
My position was not going to be one of those positions, but I wasn't real crazy about staying,
given the circumstances, so I left and went to work for National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration. So the first go around I probably worked for CRS like 9 or 10 months. I left
and went to work for NHTSA in New York, but then I got burned out on the New York lifestyle.
I couldn't keep up with it and so I just called up Ozell, [head of the Atlanta office of CRS]. I
came back in July of 1975 and I've been here ever since.
Julian Klugman
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Answer:
1970. I was with CRS for twenty-seven years. I spent a year in Washington, as a program
development and evaluation officer, and then I came out to the West coast.
Efrain Martinez
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you begin working with
CRS?
Answer:
May of 1972.
Werner Petterson
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
What was the time period that you were involved with CRS?
Answer:
From October 1969 to June of 1973. 1973 was the point where we had a RIF (reduction in
force) at CRS. I chose to leave, I didn't have to leave. I chose to leave and was gone for about a
year and a half and then came back to CRS in February of 1975 and stayed with the agency until
June of 1997 when I retired.
Manuel Salinas
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
When did you begin working as a mediator or conciliator for
CRS?
Answer:
Latter part of 1968.
Question:
When did you leave?
Answer:
I left December, 1988. So it's been a while.
Ozell Sutton
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Would you say a
little bit about how you got involved with CRS?
Answer:
I was a part of the group that conceptualized CRS before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. I
was director of the Arkansas Council on Human Relations and we were trying to get the Civil
Rights Act structured and passed going all the way back to 1962. A group was meeting in
Washington to conceptualize how we could get an act passed, given what it contained. I was
assigned to two workshop groups. One was the Community Relations Service, although we
didn't call it that at the time. We simply called it Civil Rights, or we would call it the Human
Relations Groups, or that kind of thing. I was also assigned to the EO [Equal Opportunity]
workshop group that finally came forth with EEOC, which is Title VII. So we picked our
brains for two days, deciding if we could get that passed. And then, the March on Washington
forced Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (As you remember, the March on
Washington was in 1963, and it forced Congress to pass the act.) Before then, various bills
had been presented and there were various notions on what the act ought to look like. Lyndon
Johnson had an idea of something like the Community Relations Service long before he was
President. And now, he was President and he was pushing for it to happen.
When it was finally passed, that's Title X of the Civil Rights Act, it didn't quite look like what
we had envisioned. We had envisioned it having subpoena power, cease and desist power, and
mediation and conciliation, but it didn't pass Congress that way.
Now, about how I got involved in the profession and all that. After the Civil Rights Act was
passed, they used the Commission on Civil Rights to present a series of hearings on the Civil
Rights Act to make officials aware of what was contained in the Civil Rights Act. Civil rights
activists, school board members, and members of city councils in Arkansas, mayors, and these
kind of people were invited to come hear what the act meant. For the opening session, they
found out at the last minute, though I knew all the time, there was not a single black on the
program.
The guy who used to be with the Civil Rights Commission, who later went to HUD, by the
name of Sam Simmons called me and said, "Ozell?" I said, "Yes?" He said, "You know that
we're opening this big conference in Little Rock tomorrow?" I said, "Yes, I know." And he
said, "There's not a single black in the opening session." I said, "I know that, too. I don't
know what you all were thinking, but there's not a single black on the program." He said,
"You've got to speak." I said, "I've got to speak? About what?" And Sam said, "I really don't
give a damn. Just speak." I said, "Sam, it's unfair that you've been planning this for six weeks
and you've got all of the speakers. The governors' going to be there, and he's going to speak,
and the congressman's going to speak and one of the senators is speaking. Now, you call me at
the last minute and tell me that I must join in, now that's not equal opportunity." He said, "Oh
hell, Ozell. Number one, you know you can do it, and I know you can do it. And number two,
you know if I'd have told you six weeks ago that you still would have spoken
extemporaneously. Now don't tell me that, I know you can, and I want you to speak." I said,
"Okay." He said, "Fifteen minutes." So I spoke. There was a guy there from CRS, it was just
getting started and after I had spoken, they invited me to join the staff of CRS.
Question:
Was this Ben Holman?
Answer:
No, Ben Holman was not director at the time. See, when Ben Holman came, he came as
head of media for CRS, and not director of the agency. The director of the agency, I've
forgotten his name now, but I came in under Roger Wilkins. But it was not even Roger then,
Roger was with the agency, but he was not director. When I was asked to join I said, "Alright,
I'll take a look." And I told them that I needed a fourteen to come aboard. They didn't have a
fourteen to give me, so I didn't come. Just that simple.
A year later, I was called by a guy named George Cobos. George was deputy director then and
in charge of the field staff, and he was in charge of recruiting and staffing up. He called and he
said, "Ozell, you don't know me, I don't know you, I only know who you are, but we're trying
to staff CRS and I see that you don't have an application in here, but I see where they talked
with you last year about coming aboard, so I'm checking. We need people to come aboard who
are already seasoned and experienced. You headed our council on Human Relations and you're
just the kind of person we need to come aboard. So, how about it?"
I said, "Can you give me a fourteen?" He said, "No, I can't give you a fourteen. We don't have
a fourteen." I said, "Well, that is my condition." And we talked for awhile and he said, "Are
you coming up to the white House conference on Civil Rights?" I said, "Yes, I'm coming up.
Now I don't work for one of these agencies that's going to pay my way," I said. That's the way
we were in those days, we had to pay our own way, but I did that. "I might be having donuts
and coffee for breakfast, and stew for dinner, but I'll be there." He said, "Well, let's get
together." He described himself to me so I would know him and I described myself to him.
Sure enough, we got together and he offered the job again and I said, "You got a fourteen?"
He said, "No, but I have another proposition I'd like to offer you. Would you come for a
thirteen if I open you an office there in Little Rock?" I said, "Well, if I don't have to move, I'll
come for a thirteen." He said, "Now you're going to travel like hell. You're not going to be
working in Little Rock, but home will still be in Little Rock." And my wife's a teacher there,
so she could keep on teaching. He said, "But you will leave home on Mondays and come back
on Thursdays. Now can you handle that?" I said, "As long as I don't have to move, I'll come
for a thirteen." So they opened an office in the area and I got the thirteen, and that's how I
came to CRS. But I was assigned in New Orleans. And I was in New Orleans every Monday
morning.
Will Reed
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Answer:
When I first started I was a field representative. That was my first
title. A field
representative was a staff person throughout the six-state region. I worked all over the region
and
sometimes over the nation. It depended on where a major difficulty would happen to be
occurring. They
would farm you out to that particular region or that particular area. CRS
is an agency
with ten regions. At that time field representatives worked in about five basic areas. Doing
conflict
resolution. At that time, the director took the position that if we could improve economic
development,
education, housing, administration of justice, and other areas, we would resolve a lot of conflicts
within the
minority community.
Will Reed
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
When did you start?
Answer:
1971, as a field representative. We were the foot soldiers, who
were out doing all these types of things. But, there was not just an emphasis on conflict
resolution, but on
total specialties, housing, economic development, so forth.
Will Reed
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
How long were you at CRS? (on tape)
Answer:
27 years. And I found it to be one of the most rewarding and educational
experiences a professional could have. It was hands-on. You always had to think your way
through a
situation
Will Reed
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Answer:
I left in 1996 after accumulating 30 years of Federal Service.
Wallace Warfield
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
Can you start by telling us when you came to CRS?
Answer:
Sure, July 1968.
Dick Salem
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
Dick, can you tell us when you began at CRS?
Answer:
I began in June 1968, just before the Democratic Convention in Chicago.
Nancy Ferrell
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
I started in September of 1985.
Nancy Ferrell
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Answer:
I left in October of '95 and then had a
contract during all of '96, with the church burning task force.
Silke Hansen
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you begin working as a mediator with CRS?
Answer:
In March of 1972.
Renaldo Rivera
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
When did you start at CRS?
Answer:
I started at CRS in 1999 in the Mid-Atlantic region. I came up here about 6 or 8 months
ago.
Renaldo Rivera
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
I joined CRS in 1999 as a conciliator in the Mid Atlantic
Region. I wanted to see what the conciliation work was like at CRS. I was there until April
2001 when I was appointed Regional Director in New York. I had been in Washington when
CRS lost a tremendous amount of its funding. That was something I was aware of because it was
in the local papers and I had known of the history of CRS through various associations through
the years. I came to CRS to move the work forward. Being at the institutional level of the
Department of Justice provides you with degrees of access that you don't have coming from any
other setting.
| Martin Walsh
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you come to CRS?
Answer:
I came to CRS in February of 1968. I came in Washington. I was recruited first under the
work I had done in Florida that was known to CRS. They brought me into the Program
Evaluation and Development Section, PED, to be the Evaluation Officer.
Stephen Thom
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
When did you begin work at CRS?
Answer:
I actually started in 1987.
| Dick Salem
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Question:
How long did you stay there at CRS?
Answer:
Well I was the Regional Director for fourteen
years.
Silke Hansen
[Full Interview] [Topic Top]
Did this happen right when you started at CRS?
Answer:
Yeah. I had started with CRS in March of '72
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