Mediator Interview Topic - Were your initial meetings during your intervention private and confidential?

Civil Rights Mediation
Oral History Project Phase I

Were your initial meetings during your intervention private and confidential?

Dick Salem

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

I had received a call from a state senator from a predominantly Jewish District in the north part of Chicago. He asked if I could come over to his house Sunday morning to meet with him and a colleague. This was a private meeting to get a message to Colin that unless he withdrew from Skokie, they were going to pass the ordinance that would ban him from all over the state. The Senator and the legislator with him were obviously under pressure from their constituents to keep Colin out of Skokie. I also found out from another legislator that if Colin did not go to Skokie, the state legislation would never pass. It was very controversial, and would likely be stricken down by the courts as a First Amendment violation. Meanwhile, the Skokie ordinances and the ban from the Chicago Park District were moving through the federal courts and it appeared they would be overruled on appeal.

Nancy Ferrell

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

Question:
Were those meetings, or interviews private, or did you have all the groups at the same time hearing their grievances? How did you do that?

Answer:
I did both. I interviewed individuals, and I also went to group meetings. I would go to a faculty meeting and then I would interview individuals by their choice, or by being selected by the group to come. I did the same thing with the student organizations. I met with them at their regular meeting and then I would have a schedule when I met with people individually.

Leo Cardenas

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

Were the initial meetings during your intervention always private or did you bring them together to talk at the same time?

Answer:
No. They were always private and always apart until we got to the point that we started working on a series of issues, and in between we were simply going between one group and the other. And eventually we got them together, if my memory again serves me correctly, we had at least three meetings before we finally had a signature.

Efrain Martinez

[Full Interview] [Topic Top]

So you go into the initial meeting laying everything out, explaining your procedure and your process up front with both parties?

Answer:
I do it individually, or in a group setting. Sometimes we may key in on certain people depending on what the issue is and how bad or how small the problem is.

Question:
Do you decide that before you go in?

Answer:
No, I have to find out. I make as much contact as I can by phone but that's only to determine if we have jurisdiction. Is there a conflict in this community, and is it related to race? That's usually the phone contact. When we're there we explore the situation further.

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