Grand Rapids, June 3, 2004, 8:03 a.m.) It has been two months since the Grand Rapids City Commission rejected a plan to re-name Franklin Street after Martin Luther King. The move sparked an emotional response that Mayor George Heartwell says still casts a pall over the city today.

That's why the mayor wants to gather a group of people to find ways to bring people back together. The Civil Rights Recognition Commission will have six months to come up with some recommendations. The group will forward its plans to the mayor and city commission, who will try to turn at least some of those plans into reality.

The commission is a group of 17 relatively young people. Almost all of them are under 40 years old. The mayor says he wanted to hear from people with a lot of energy and new ideas, but the members we talked to say they'll work towards a goal that affects us all, whatever our age might be.

Steve Robbins, who runs an institute that fights racism, says the commission could look like his son's soccer team: a diverse group of people working as a team. They'll kick around ideas to achieve a common goal. 

Robbins will have Jonathan Jelks on the team. Jelks helped organize last month's forum on the future of the black community in Grand Rapids. Now, Jelks says he looks forward to continuing the discussion to benefit people of all races.