Civil rights-era government agency to be purged
A landmark Justice Department office created in the 1960's during the civil rights movement is marked for closure by the Trump administration, raising fears of a loss of generations of work tamping down and working to prevent unrest in the nation's major cities.
An internal Justice Department memo reviewed by CBS News said Trump appointees are considering closing the Community Relations Service, which was created as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The mission of the office is to be "America's peacemaker," tasked with "preventing and resolving racial and ethnic tensions, conflicts, and civil disorders, and in restoring racial stability and harmony."
The Community Relations Service does not investigate or prosecute crimes and has no law enforcement authority, and according to the Justice Department, its services are both confidential and free of charge to communities that accept or request them. In 2021, the agency said of its mission that it sought to help realize Martin Luther King Jr.'s "inspiring dream of a vibrant, all-embracing nation unified in justice, peace, and reconciliation."
The office has a history of intervening during periods of heightened national unrest. It was credited with helping prevent another riot in 1993, as racial tensions re-emerged following the second trial of police who beat Rodney King in California.
It also worked to ease rising racial tensions after the 1997 fatal police shooting of a Chinese-American man in Rohnert Park, California, in Akron, Ohio in 2022 after the shooting of a Black man by police and deploying twice to Minneapolis during the trial of Derek Chauvin after the killing of George Floyd in 2020 in Minnesota.
Former leaders of the Community Relations Service worry that shuttering the office could lead to a surge in disputes between police departments or city leaders and minority communities nationwide.
"We would find and stop brush fires, before they became forest fires," said Ron Wakabayashi, a former regional director of the Community Relations Service. Wakabayashi told CBS News he fears the nation will be at greater risk of unrest, boycotts and lawsuits without the agency's Community Relations Service deployed regionally across nation.
The Community Relations Service's low-profile approach means it has remained less well known even among federal government leaders, though it has been a vital asset for the Justice Department, according to some who have led the office. Community Relations Service employees have quietly intervened with church leaders, community leaders, relatives of victims of violence and city administrators to ward off unrest, lawsuits or boycotts.
President John F. Kennedy conceived of the office in the early 1960s, saying the federal government should have experts who can "identify tensions before they reach the crisis stage" and "work quietly to ease tensions and improve relations in any community threatened or torn with strife."
The passage of hate crimes legislation in the wake of the killings of Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. in the late 1990s meant that the office's jurisdiction "expanded to gender, sex, religion, protected classes of people," Wakabayashi said.
He said the experienced employees of the Community Relations Service would develop relationships over the course of years in major cities, with leaders of houses of worship, police departments and activists to earn credibility and better equip themselves to mediate disputes.
According to Wakabayasi, at one point the office employed 600 professional staff, including mediators and community outreach experts, in regional offices in Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Detroit, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Boston.
The Justice Department memo reviewed by CBS News indicates some of the current Community Relations Service staff would be reassigned to federal prosecutors' offices nationwide. Former staffers say that type of reorganization could cripple the federal government's ability to prevent racial strife in U.S. cities because community activists might be less willing to work with so-called peacemakers who may be perceived to be aligned with prosecutors' offices.
Bert Brandenberg, a 30-year veteran of the Community Relations Service, and former Justice Department officials questioned plans to close the office: "During eras of soaring racial tension – wouldn't it make sense to have people in communities while they arise ... so they don't lead to boycotts, litigation or unrest?"
"Violence prevention works best when communities see conciliators as honest brokers they can open up with as part of working through conflicts, which is distinct from the critical work of prosecutors holding wrongdoers accountable," Brandenberg told CBS News.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
In a speech in July 2024, Justin Lock, a former director of the Community Relations Service, lauded the office's accomplishments. Lock said the office had been "at the intersection of some of the most critical moments in our nation's journey toward justice."
"In 2020, when Americans marched in solidarity with the people of Brunswick, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; and Minneapolis, Minnesota, following the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, CRS engaged with communities as an impartial, confidential facilitator, helping stakeholders identify and implement solutions that help communities to heal and move forward," Locke said.
Rep Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, in a statement to CBS News praised the office's work in defusing tensions between minority communities and the government and expressed concern about reports that it would be cut. "At a time when hate crimes and community tensions are on the rise, reducing support for this essential office would be a grave mistake," he said. "I urge the DOJ to reaffirm its commitment to building trust and bringing greater safety to all our communities."
Scott MacFarlane is CBS News' Justice correspondent. He has covered Washington for two decades, earning 20 Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards. His reporting has resulted directly in the passage of five new laws.
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