Photo courtesy of Vanessa Clarke
The CRC Fights for Inclusion and Equity for All
Photo courtesy of Willie Ratchford
Vanessa Clarke is the Chairperson of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee.
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Foster
Willie Ratchford is the Executive Director of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee.
Pictured here are four CRC members during a mediation training session. Vanessa Clarke (top), Arun Nair (right), Bonnie Foster (bottom), Yvette Townsend-Ingram (left) By Angela Lindsay
T
he Charlotte-Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee (CRC) has been diligently advocating for the people who live in the Charlotte region for the past 60 years. The CRC works to prevent discrimination and build harmony by advocating for diversity, equity and access for all.
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“Many of the challenges that our community faced decades ago are still happening now and CRC’s work remains critical,” said CRC executive director Willie Ratchford, who has worked with the group for 41 years, including 27 as executive director. “CRC’s mission, in part, is to ameliorate the current effects of past and present discrimination and racism,” he said.
Charlotte Multicultural Resource Magazine | www.pridemagazineonline.com
During the national civil rights movement in the 1960’s, Charlotte Mayor Stanford R. Brookshire bolstered the local efforts to guarantee equal protection under the law for all by transforming the Friendly Relations Committee to the Mayor’s Community Relations Committee (now the CRC) to help improve race relations. The 45-member team is comprised of professional staff members and volunteers who are appointed by the mayor, Charlotte City Council and the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners. When mounting tensions were bubbling up throughout the country in the 1960s as Black people demanded justice and equality, like many other
