Call for next US president to spearhead `moral regeneration'.

The next US President's first initiative should be to bring together the nation's spiritual and religious leaders to spearhead `a moral regeneration', said the Rev B Herbert Martin from Chicago, addressing CCBI's `Heart of partnership' conference. The aim should be to develop initiatives to `rebuild the moral backbone of America and for better race relations'. Martin was an organizer of the 1995 Million Man March in Washington, DC, and was preparing for this October's Million Family March there.

Describing Chicago as `the most racially segregated city in America', he spoke of the emergence of `a critical mass of people of goodwill who are willing to break through the old walls of hostility and socio-economic separation'. The predominantly African-American inner city neighbourhood of Bronzeville and the mainly white community of Bridgeport had begun reaching out to each other in the aftermath of a racial beating of a young African-American male by three young white males, he said. `The racial healing, truth and justice that developed between these two communities is now being considered as a model for racial healing across metropolitan Chicago.'