The Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations (LDIR)
Program grows out of a specific moment in the landscape of Los
Angeles culture. In the late 1980′s, several community centers
and places of worship were vandalized with messages of hate. By
1989, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) began
thinking seriously about developing a program that would provide
individuals with specific skills to address human relations
issues. The first LDIR program began in 1991 and graduated the
first LDIR participants a few weeks after the Los Angeles 1992
civil unrest. While the first class was conducted solely by
APALC, after the graduation the League of United Latino American
Citizens (LULAC) of San Gabriel Valley added their support. The
Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Martin Luther King
Dispute Resolution Center (SCLC/MLKDRC) also joined as a formal
partner to better round out the program’s curriculum and
community representation. In 1997, with the support of the
LDIR’s Operations Board which by th