BAMN

United for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund (UEAALDF)

NAACP

Reverend Jesse Jackson and Rainbow/PUSH

American Federation of Teachers

Progressive National Baptist Convention

March 25th Coalition

Chinese for Affirmative Action

International ANSWER

NAACP Youth & College Division

Jonathan Kozol, renowned educator and author

American Association for Affirmative Action

Derrick A. Bell, Professor of Law, NYU

Professor Charles Ogletree, Harvard University

Eleanor Holmes Norton, Member of Congress, Washington DC

Immortal Technique, Viper Records

Martin O'Malley, Governor-Elect, Maryland

Bob Moses, civil rights leader, Algebra Project

Darnell Hunt, Director of Bunche Center for African American Studies, UCLA

Mitchell Chang, Professor, UCLA Graduate School of Education

UAW Region 1A

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA)

AFSCME City of Detroit Presidents

AFSCME Local 207, City of Detroit

Oakland Education Association (OEA)

AFSCME Local 2920, City of Detroit

AFSCME Local 2626, Librarians' Guild, Los Angeles

San Lorenzo Education Association (SLEA)

American College Personnel Association

Oakland Unified School District

Berkeley Unified School District

Los Angeles Urban League

Equal Justice Society

Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice

The Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression

Seattle Alliance of Black School Educators (SABSE)

Public Education Network

ILACHE - Illinois Latino Council on Higher Education

Reunion Regional de los Comites pro APPO

Maryland Freedom Board of Education

New York State Affirmative Action Advisory Council

Redstone Area Minority Employees Association

San Diego Association of Black Psychologists

Advance Youth Leadership Power, Chicago

C.L.O.U.D. N.I.N.E. - Allendale, MI

Act on Racism, Allendale, MI

National Association of Bench and Bar Spouses (NABBS), Detroit chapter

Concilio Hispano, Inc.,
Cambridge, Mass.

North Carolina Equal Rights Society

Brown Foundation for Educational Equity - Topeka, KS

YWCA USA

Rethinking Schools, Milwaukee, WI

National Latino Law Students Association (NLLSA)

National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA)

Associated Students of the University of California (UC Berkeley)

The Black Ivy Alumni League

Howard University Student Association

Fayetteville State University Student Government

Elizabeth City State University Student Government, North Carolina

Society for the Advancement of Management, Howard University

Pacific Islanders at Cal (UC Berkeley)

Twin Cities Alliance of Latino/a Law Students

Black Student Union of Columbia College Chicago

Black Student Union, Franklin High School, Seattle

Black Student Union, Bowling Green State University, OH

Center for Latino Policy Research (CLPR), UC Berkeley

Target HOPE, Howard University Chapter

Washington State Club, Howard University

Afro-American Cultural Center, Yale University

Black Student Alliance, Yale University (BSAY)

Hermanas Unidas, King/Drew Medical Magnet High School, Los Angeles

African-American Theme House, UC-Berkeley

Anti-Defamation League, Bravo HS chapter, Los Angeles

Otoku Club, Bravo HS chapter, Los Angeles

Latino Student Union - University of Maryland

Bowie State Student Government Association

Coalition for Justice - Harvard Graduate School of Education

Black Honors Caucus, University of Maryland

ALANAI Honor Society, University of Massachusetts

University of Baltimore Black Law Students Assn.

NAACP College Chapter at Kutztown University, PA

Texas Southern University Chapter of N.A.A.C.P

NAACP at Miami University (Ohio)

Morgan State University Student Government, Maryland

African-American Student League of Montgomery County Community College (PA)

Blacks In Government, Washington DC

Lincoln University Student Government Association (PA)

Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc

Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) Inc, Delta Upsilon Omega Chapter

Interested Ladies of LTA Latin Sorority, Inc.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Nu Alpha Chapter, George Washington University

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Iota Zeta Chapter, UMD College Park

Phi Alpha Kappa Honor Society, New York City

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Beta Delta Chapter, South Carolina State University

Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc., Beta Beta Chapter, UMass-Amherst

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Omicron Lambda Chapter

Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Inc., Delta Delta Chapter, Coppin State Univ (Baltimore)

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.- Epsilon Xi, Western Michigan Univ.

Reverend Doctor Samuel Berry McKinney, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Seattle

Plymouth Congregational UCC Board of Social Action

Reverend J. Alfred Smith, Allen Temple Baptist Church, Oakland

Reverend Dr. John J. Hunter, First AME Church, Los Angeles

Reverend Frank W. Jackson IV, St. Andrew-Redeemer Lutheran Church, Detroit

Ebenezer A.M.E. Church, Fort Washington, MD

Ledonia Wright Cultural Center Emissaries (Greenville, NC)

Advocating 4 Kids (Virginia Beach)

Action by Congregations Together for Children, Brooklyn, NY

This spring, beginning with the historic marches in Chicago and Los Angeles, millions of Latinas/os, joined by people of all races, marched through the cities of this nation demanding equality and justice. A new mass civil rights movement was born. Mass action of unprecedented scope defeated the worst elements of the racist attack on immigrants and has begun to shift the balance of power in the county in favor of progress and integration. All the forces standing for integration must understand this shift in the balance of power.

The right wing is taking the Seattle and Louisville school desegregation cases to the US Supreme Court because they want to kill Brown v. Board of Education. They want to outlaw any measure that can achieve integration in American life. They want segregation forced on local school districts by the weight of federal law. They want black and Latina/o youth permanently relegated to separate, inferior schools. They are about to learn a lesson they should have learned a long time ago: you don't always get what you want.

Our new movement, standing up integrated, militant, shoulder to shoulder, will defeat this attack on school desegregation and make the racists wish they hadn't started a fight against so many proud, angry, smart people. We've had enough - we're not having any more. The new movement puts the racists of the country on notice: we're not accepting the back of the bus any more. We will not be marginalized. We will not be mistreated, disrespected or segregated.

It's time to fight.

The Seattle and Louisville school desegregation cases are a wake up call to all the youth of the nation. Now is the time to stand up and fight. The old, tired, sold-out leaderships would rather bow down, beg and be beaten for their trouble. A new leadership that wants to stand up and fight for equality, integration and justice will find a more vibrant, deeper response to that perspective now than at any time in decades.

The right wing will take from us only what we let them. When we stand up together and fight there's no power on earth that can stop us. In defending Brown v. Board of Education, at the US Supreme Court, we can wake up the progressive forces of the country - we can put America on the road to making Martin Luther King's dream into our shared destiny. Which direction this society moves is completely up to us - the young leaders of the new civil rights movement.