LOS ANGELES : Civil Rights Commission Plans Hearings for June

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced Wednesday that it will hold public hearings in Los Angeles on June 15-17 at the Sheraton Grande Hotel downtown.

The hearings will focus on the effect of news media and television entertainment programming on America’s perception of race and ethnicity, barriers to minority community revitalization and the administration of justice in the Los Angeles area.

The hearings are part of the commission’s investigation into the resurgence of racial and ethnic tensions in the United States. The three- to five-year project, titled “Racial and Ethnic Tensions in American Communities: Poverty, Inequality and Discrimination,” already has prompted hearings in Washington and Chicago.

“Although the civil disturbances in Los Angeles last year are not the primary focus of our investigation,” commission Chairman Arthur Fletcher said, “they certainly sharpen and clarify the issues underlying problems in race relations across the country.”