It all happened on a muggy Fourth of July night in 1998. The sky was hazy near Romkey Park in Moorhead with the aftermath of spent fireworks. Red-hot charcoal turned to ash in barbecue grills, as people began to pack up their belongings and call it a night.

Then, around 11 p.m., just as things were winding down, police were dispatched to the area to quell a domestic dispute. When officers arrived, they also tried to arrest several people wanted in connection with an assault on an officer the previous day in the neighborhood.

But what started as a relatively normal police call quickly escalated into a situation no one could have expected.

Police reports from that time note that a mob began to harass and threaten officers. As the throng of people became unmanageable, more help had to be called in.

Officers dodged bottles and other projectiles. They had to wear shields and carry batons. At one point, the crowd filled about two blocks of 19th Street South.

Diane Wray Williams was there. She remembers folding up her lawn chair across from the park before becoming a witness to the fracas.

“One minute we’re celebrating and watching the fireworks, and then we were all watching this incident spill out onto the street,” said Williams, now a Moorhead City Council member.

Sandi Berlin was playing cards with a friend. They were relaxing after the activities of the day, still smelling of cookouts and fireworks.

All of a sudden, “it was like a war zone; that’s what it felt like,” Berlin said. “I really thought I was going to die that night.”

By the time it was over, the windows of two police cruisers were smashed, one police bike was stolen and another thrown through the window of an abandoned apartment. The bike and apartment were set on fire.

An estimated 100 law enforcement officers from multiple agencies were called in to control the disturbance, which involved nearly 200 people. Sixteen people were arrested, mostly on misdemeanor charges of obstructing the legal process.

Some claimed the Independence Day riot was racially motivated, since the neighborhood had a large Hispanic population at the time.

Following the event, a local grass-roots organization known as the Justice Circle was formed, sparked by a U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report — which also came about in the aftermath of the riot — on the city’s purported prejudices.

More than 100 community members signed on to help the Justice Circle’s efforts to mollify racial tensions.

The group ultimately issued its own report, based on the national report’s findings, which included objectives and goals the city should work on to curb racism.

But nearly a decade later, that report has been largely untouched. It’s unclear how many of the goals and objectives have been met. Some are difficult to measure, Williams said. There’s not a group charged with ensuring that these goals are being met, making accountability hard to track, she added.

Now, several community members and city officials say they are frustrated and wonder what has been done to improve and address racial tensions in Moorhead. ‘Illusion’ of inclusion

The Minnesota Advisory Committee — an arm of the U.S. Civil Commission on Civil Rights — decided to take a closer look at the status of discrimination in Moorhead following an allegation that police used unnecessary force during the riot.

The commission took nearly three years to develop the report, which drew its findings and recommendations from a survey of the attitudes of white residents, interviews with public and organization officials, and commentary from the minority community.

The commission released its 40-page report in January 2001, concluding that minority residents in Moorhead are unfairly targeted by police, underrepresented in the public work force and discriminated against in school.

Although the commission determined that overt, egregious racist acts and attitudes were not tolerated in Moorhead, the Minnesota Advisory Committee found Moorhead had an “illusion about inclusion,” stating that residents have a muddled understanding about racial and ethnic prejudice in the area.

The report found that 95 percent of white residents said equal opportunity for minorities had improved in the past 10 years.

By contrast, 33 percent of minorities surveyed agreed that equal opportunity for minorities had improved within the past decade.

The commission found that the per-capita income of minorities in Moorhead was one-third that of white residents’, who viewed minorities’ employment status as evidence of equal opportunity.

Fact-finding hearings for the survey took place in 1999, spurring the formation of the Justice Circle.

Berlin said she became involved with the Justice Circle because she didn’t want future generations to live in fear simply because of the color of their skin.

Berlin said most of her childhood was riddled with shame and ridicule simply because she is an American Indian. Justice Circle efforts

The Justice Circle examined the commission’s report, which focused on housing, employment, policing and education.

The group took the report’s findings and tailored them to a list of 54 objectives the city should work on to curb racism. Those objectives were grouped into a set of 15 goals. More than 30 study groups met to discuss those goals.

In addition, 10 citizen action teams comprised of more than 300 residents were formed to collect recommendations based on those goals, with more than 50 members on a team focusing on education in Moorhead.

A community forum in April 2001 announcing the Justice Circle’s recommendations drew nearly 200 people, with the majority of them promising to see the goals become reality.

People chimed in with opinions about racism in Moorhead.

One resident said people treated him differently when he was away from his church.

“When I’m wearing blue jeans, I’m treated differently,” said the Rev. Vernnia Wright, who is black, at the 2001 forum. “But when I have a suit and tie on, I’m treated like a human being.”

Nelson Lozano, executive director of Centro Cultural de Fargo-Moorhead, said people are initially friendly to him, until they hear his accent.

“It happens to me all the time,” he said.

The Justice Circle appeared poised to change the attitudes and perceptions of Moorhead, Williams said.

Justice Circle members say they handed the report and their suggestions to the Moorhead Human Rights Commission in October 2001. Its members, in turn, say they handed off their recommendations to the City Council in January 2003.

Each claims its hands were tied due to lack of funds, staffing or official power.

Even so, as months turned into years, change has slowly happened, Berlin said.

Lozano said the region will continue to evolve with the makeup of the town.

“The changes are really slow, but I think that the whole dynamic of the process is so big,” Lozano said. Who’s accountable?

Williams, one of the Justice Circle founders, said that when the group submitted its report to the Moorhead Human Rights Commission, it stopped actively monitoring the progress of accomplishing the 15 goals.

“Either right now, it’s not the right group or we’re not supporting them enough,” Williams said. “If (the Justice Circle wants) this done, it might be best to be watching it ourselves. We have to figure out how to do the report cards.”

Although the Justice Circle still exists, its members mostly keep in touch through e-mail or an occasional meeting, Williams said.

Williams said the City Council, on which she sits, has the resources to monitor the city’s progress on race relations but has failed to act on many of the civil rights report’s recommendations.

Tammie Yak, chairwoman of the Human Rights Commission, said the issues of prejudice and racism highlighted nearly a decade ago are still relevant today.

Without a full-time staff member, it can be difficult to maintain consistent pressure on the council, she said.

The commission “exist(s) only by council resolution and authority,” Yak said. “We don’t have any power.”

Yak said she sees the commission as an advisory board for the City Council. Bringing the recommendations forward to the council and suggesting they implement them was really all the Human Rights Commission could do, she said.

Annual reports released to the council in 2003 and 2004 encourage council members to take stronger action on the Justice Circle’s recommendations.

“We have no way of holding people accountable,” Yak said. ‘This is important’

Councilman Greg Lemke said he could see why the Human Rights Commission would feel “pretty demoralized” about their role with the City Council, “questioning why they even exist” if nothing gets done with their proposals.

Lemke voiced concern about the inactivity of the report’s recommendations during his run for re-election last November, stating it has “fallen by the wayside.”

He wants the process move forward again.

“(City Council members) are the ones who set the pace for this, the tone for this,” he said. “We need to say ‘This is important and we need to deal with it.’”

Lemke, Yak and Williams agree that little or no action has happened with the Justice Circle’s 16 goals — which included ensuring fair business practices, affordable housing options, and access to public transportation.

Here are a few examples The Forum found since recommendations were announced:

• The police department began installing cameras in their patrol cars in 2002 to ensure better accountability. In 2006, they switched from a VHS format to a digital version.

• Public schools began to change how they dealt with prejudiced attitudes and its effects on youth by incorporating anti-racist trainings in their curriculum.

• A collaborative of area nonprofits created Uniting for Equality in 2003, established “to hold legislators accountable to the needs of a diverse community.”

• Anti-racism training was initiated in 2001 at area colleges through a newly formed Training Our Campuses Against Racism group.

Lemke and Williams say more can be done, and hiring a new city manager should help reignite the fervor for improving civil rights in Moorhead.

Michael Redlinger, hired earlier this month as city manager, said he will review the Human Rights Commission’s reports.

“If there’s follow-up work to be done, absolutely, we’re committed to doing that,” he said. “It’s the goal of every community, but it’s especially important here, considering how aware and cognizant people are of those reports.”

Lemke said he’s disappointed in himself for not seeing some of the objectives through.

“I’m guilty myself for not stepping forward,” said Lemke, the council’s liaison to the Human Rights Commission. “It’s time to get moving on it again.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter

Kim Winnegge at (701) 241-5524