No Progress Made on Committee To Insure Racial Harmony in City

The proposed Cambridge Citizens Liaison Committee--conceived to insure racial harmony in the city--is no closer to being a reality today than when it was first suggested last week.

David N. Bailey, president of the Riverside Neighborhood Association, explained that the project had bogged down temporarily because "most of our key people, legal advisors and such, are vacationing and not available."

Bailey added that the Association was presently spending most of its time on a get-out-the-vote picnic, scheduled for Saturday, and said, "I guess we will just have to wait a week or so before we can start to act."

Houghton Park Group

He said he felt that the Committee would attract a large number of civic-minded Cambridge citizens, both Negro and white. Bailey said he had hoped that young people would join the organization, but had learned that teenagers from the Houghton Park area had already made plans to form a group of their own. "I believe they have plans to organize as a Negro group," Bailey said, "but will expand and integrate as things progress."

The Citizens Liaison Committee was first proposed last Wednesday when the neighborhood association met with Cambridge Mayor Edward A. Crane, City Manager John J. Curry, and Police Chief Daniel J. Brennan.

Bailey outlined his plans before these city officials, and said that the most important function of such a committee would be to serve as a liaison between the police and the citizens of Cambridge.

Brennan said he would be willing to cooperate, and this support encouraged Bailey and others to go ahead with the plan.

If the Citizens Liaison Committee is successful, Bailey asserted, "then we can maintain the status quo, then if anything should arise the police can call upon responsible citizens and know they will receive cooperation. Cambridge is not a bad place; we just want to make sure it stays that way."

At last week's meeting, Kenneth Guscott, president of the Boston branch of the National Association of Colored People, urged that the group be made up of both Negroes and whites. "It should encompass all the leaders of the community. Then if anything should happen, the police can call upon responsible citizens for aid. We do not want another Harlem," he said.