Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute
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| Headquarters | 366 Tuskegee Airmen Drive, Patrick Air Force Base Florida |
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| Website | http://www.DEOMI.org |
The Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) is a U.S. Department of Defense joint services school located at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, offering both resident and off-site courses in areas including equal opportunity, intercultural communication, and religious, racial, gender, and ethnic diversity and pluralism to civilian and military personnel working with the American armed forces.
DEOMI was established in 1971 as the Defense Race Relations Institute (DRRI) based on lessons learned from the Civil Rights Movement. Set against a national policy of inequality and segregation, and problems both in the civilian world and the military linked to racial tension and hostility, military leaders understood that working together across racial lines was not only the right thing to do but also a necessary element in terms of military readiness.
Consequently, an inter-service task force was convened to study "causes and possible cures of...disorders within the military." Chaired by Air Force Major General Lucius Theus, the task force resulted in Department of Defense Directive 1322.11, establishing the Race Relations Education Board, and led to the 1971 establishment of the DRRI at Patrick AFB, Florida, under the leadership of the first director, Col. Edward F. Krise, USA. In July 1979 the name was changed to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, to reflect the growing array of issues included in DEOMI courses, including sexual harassment, sexism, extremism, religious accommodation, and anti-Semitism. More than 20,000 reserve and active duty military members and civilian employees of the American armed forces have graduated from DEOMI since its creation.
The history of race relations in the U.S. military has sometimes been described in phases, beginning with Phase I, Executive Order #9981 issued by President Harry S. Truman, integrating the Armed Forces of the United States. Phase II, programs of education, were initiated to deal with the situation of "racial unrest." The establishment of the DRRI began this new phase in the history of race relations—and later, diversity training in its many forms.
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