Community Relations Service

NEW CRS DIRECTOR SHAREE M. FREEMAN HEARS
NEW YORK/NEW JERSEYCOMMUNITY RACIAL BACKLASH CONCERNS
AND RECEIVES BRIEFINGS ON RACIAL TENSIONS ASSOCIATED
WITH WTC RELIEF EFFORTS

     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The new director of the Community Relations Service (CRS), Sharee M. Freeman, will visit CRS' Northeast Regional Office in Manhattan. She will spend two weeks beginning December 26, 2001, in New York and New Jersey to hear community racial backlash concerns and receive briefings from community leaders on racial tensions associated with relief efforts. She will also be meeting with officials from the federal, state, and local agencies on these issues.

     "The Attorney General and the President have made clear their vision for all Americans -- regardless of their racial, ethnic, or national origin -- to live in peaceful communities. CRS is actively working to help the many racial and ethnic communities in New York and New Jersey affected by the events of September 11 to have their concerns heard and to find resolutions," said CRS Director Sharee M. Freeman.

     Some of the community groups Ms. Freeman plans to meet with are the New York Immigration Coalition, the New York Human Rights Commission, Ground Zero Clergy Task Force, Bronx Ministerial Alliance, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Merchant's Association, Arab American Family Support Service Center, Asian Federation, and the Chinatown Manpower Project among others. It is expected that prevention of hate incidents and crimes against targeted minority communities will dominate the discussions.

     She will also tour the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sites, including the Disaster Assistance Service Center (DASC) at 141 Worth Street and Pier 94. Pier 94 houses the FEMA Service Center, the September 11 Victims Compensation Fund Service Center, and other federal, state, local and private disaster relief agencies, such as the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the State Crime Victims Assistance Board, and Safe Horizon among others. She will be assisting the Northeast Regional Community Relations Service Office in assessing possible community tensions with an eye to further reducing or preventing any conflicts associated with race, color, or national origin.

     For more information about the Community Relations Service, a unique racial conflict resolution and prevention agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, please see its web site: www.usdoj.gov/crs

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