Brown addresses discrimination complaints; new policies to promote diversity at the Commerce Department.

Secretary Ron Brown, responding to criticism that minority workers were treated unfairly by the Commerce Department, recently outlined steps to address the problems.

At an agency-wide meeting, telecast for those who could not attend, Brown addressed the difficulties faced by blacks and other ethnic groups at the agency. "It is clear that there are difficulties with the EEO process and insufficient opportunities for upward mobility," Brown acknowledged.

He outlined seven policies created to increase the diversity of Commerce's workforce at all levels. Most significant for the employees is that management, which they say has been the greatest obstacle to their upward mobility, will be held accountable for its efforts to diversify. Not only will a lack of effort negatively impact a manager's performance appraisal, but Big Brother, in the form of a newly established diversity council, will be watching. Additionally, a nationwide search for a new director of the agency's Office of Civil Rights has been launched.

Brown told workers that his goal is to make Commerce a working example of diversity [and] a showcase for all to emulate." African-Americans make up 18% of the agency's 36,200 employees, but less than 7% of its professional staff, and Commerce ranks 39th out of 58 federal agencies in percentage of blacks employed.

Last fall, a group called Commerce Committee for African-American Concerns approached Brown in a letter. Their allegations included the lack of African-Americans in the agency's mid-and senior-level positions and a "plantation mentality" that workers said punishes those who file complaints against the agency. This appeal was followed by a letter of support from former NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Chavis.

Initially, Brown's response was not swift enough to satisfy the workers and, after two or three meetings with him and his staff, the employees decided to go public with their dissatisfaction. In a throwback to the civil rights protests of the '60s, about 200 employees rallied outside the agency building this past spring.

The result? By summer's end the glimmer of hope they had felt when Brown was first appointed was burning much more brightly. In general, workers who attended the recent meeting seemed pleased with Brown's plan to address their concerns.

"It was amazing," said one employee who, like many others, went to the meeting with low expectations. But she left feeling optimistic. At the end of the meeting, she recalled, a woman of Pacific Indian heritage looked around the room filled with people of all races, colors, creeds and sexual orientation, and said, "This is what I imagine heaven looks like."

DEAL HOWARD UNIVERSITY GETS RESEARCH GRANT

The National Endowment for the Humanities recently awarded $220,000 to Howard University's Moorland-Spingarn Research Center to aid their study of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Howard's researchers are creating an oral history documentation that examines the impact of the bill. The first phase of the project will focus on the years 1965 through 1985, and will include interviews with public officials whose elections are attributable to the passage of the historic bill.

The research will became part of Howard's Ralph J. Bunche Oral History Collection. Moorland-Spingarn is one of the world's largest research centers focusing on people of African descent. It is a chief resource for students, academicians, scholars, writers and journalists.