Americans by Thousands Talk Race Clinton Taps National Grass-Roots Movement in Town Meeting in Ohio Tomorrow

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Signaling an unprecedented, grass-roots push to bridge America's racial divide, hundreds of thousands of citizens in scores of towns nationwide are engaged in sustained, serious dialogues on race, experts say.

From small circles of a dozen people in rural Iowa churches to gatherings of hundreds in inner-city Los Angeles, interracial dialogue groups have sprung up in more than 30 states during the past five years.

And as President Clinton seeks to invigorate his sluggish, six-month-old national "initiative" on race at a meeting in Akron, Ohio, tomorrow, he hopes to tap this quietly accelerating grass-roots movement. * In Seattle, more than 450 people have attended …