The US Supreme Court victory for affirmative action in the University of Michigan legal cases is proof that the new civil rights movement can fight and win. The April 1, 2003 national civil rights march in Washington DC of 50,000 students and youth won a precious and historic victory for affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger. Standing, organizing, marching, and rallying together, we achieved what most believed to be impossible — we beat President George Bush, who argued against affirmative action at the Supreme Court.
The independent action of the new civil rights movement secured this victory — now our victory must be defended.
Within days of the Supreme Court's decision in Grutter, California Republican businessman Ward Connerly, his billionaire segregationist backers and a handful or racist, right-wing Republican Party politicians from Michigan announced their plan to nullify that US Supreme Court decision by sponsoring an anti-affirmative action ballot measure in Michigan and other states. If passed, Connerly's Michigan ballot proposition would outlaw every affirmative action program in education, employment, and contracting. It would ban outreach programs. It would ban equal opportunity programs directed at women and minorities. If Connerly succeeds in Michigan, he will take his racially divisive anti-affirmative action campaign to other states. We must beat him in Michigan.
We can defeat Ward Connerly and his attack on civil rights, but only if we stand and fight now. We must stop him from getting the financial resources and building the political organization he needs in order to collect the 317,757 petition signatures necessary to get his segregationist proposal on the ballot for November 2004. Keeping this proposal off the ballot is the only sure way to beat it.
Defend the Grutter v. Bollinger victory — Fight to realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education:
While we build the defense of our US Supreme Court victory we must also prepare an offensive against the separate and unequal conditions of education in America.
The new civil rights movement will mark the May 2004 fifty-year anniversary of the US Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education with a march declaring No more separate and unequal — realize the promise of Brown.
The Brown decision stands for the promise of real equality of opportunity in American life. From the beginning certain right-wing forces have been committed to achieving either the reversal of Brown v. Board of Education, or if that is not possible, rendering Brown virtually meaningless in practice. Over the past 30 years these right-wing forces have gotten closer and closer to achieving their objective of rendering Brown meaningless with a series of victories against racial equality in the federal courts, reactionary and racist ballot propositions, and other reactionary legal and political setbacks for the cause of equality and integration.
In particular, these right-wing forces have succeeded through these means in shutting down most school desegregation programs in America and effectively outlawing affirmative action and integration in California and other states. As a direct result, educational segregation has gotten worse over the last generation.
That chain of setbacks for civil rights in America has at last been disrupted by Grutter v. Bollinger.
The march on November 7 in Ann Arbor, Michigan will declare our intention to defend the victory in Grutter v. Bollinger to the fullest. It is essential to protect the defense of affirmative action in Grutter v. Bollinger both in order to defend affirmative action and to bring an end to the period of setbacks to civil rights and return our nation to the path of progress toward genuine equality.
LINKS:
This conference will discuss and vote on a perspective for the defense of Grutter v. Bollinger, and the fight to realize the promise of Brown v. Board of Education. We will begin planning for a mass civil rights march on Washington, DC to mark the 50-year anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The mass civil rights march on November 7 kicks off the Seventh National Conference of the New Civil Rights Movement.
BOYCOTT COORS BEER — Make Coors pay for funding racism! See: www.bamn.com/boycott-coors.
We are organizing a national boycott of Coors Beer, a major funding source of Ward Connerly and his campaign against affirmative action. Get involved in this national boycott campaign.
Sign the online PETITION CALLING FOR WARD CONNERLY'S REMOVAL from the University of California Regents at: www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/657081309
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) www.bamn.com — Email: letters@bamn.com
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Last Modified: October 10, 2003.
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