On September 18, 1998, the advisory board that carried out President Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race released its final report, One America in the 21st Century. Earlier, on June 13, 1997, Clinton had issued Executive Order 13050, which charged the board with investigating the state of American race relations at the end of the twentieth century. The directive asked the panel to advise the president “on matters of race and racial reconciliation,” to “promote a constructive national dialogue to confront and work through challenging issues that surround race,” and to “identify, develop, and implement solutions to problems in areas in which race has a substantial impact, such as education, economic opportunity, housing, health care, and the administration of justice.” To carry out these tasks, Clinton called on seven distinguished experts led by the panel’s chair, the historian John Hope Franklin. For some fifteen months the members of the panel traveled throughout the United States, conducting town hall meetings and public forums and talking with people about their experiences regarding race. The excerpt reproduced here comes from the executive summary from the board’s final report.