NATIONAL STUDENT/YOUTH CONFERENCE to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Struggle for Equality
 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, June 1-3, 2001
@ the Law School - Hutchins Hall (State St. bet. S. University & Monroe)
*Directions*
 

• Decide on a plan of action to reverse and defeat the attacks on affirmative action, integration and the other gains of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s
   
• Commit to a strategy to build a new civil rights movement to defend past gains and move on to win real integration and equality
   
• Build a student/youth leadership for a new, independent, national civil rights movement
   
• Overturn California Proposition 209, Washington State Initiative 200, Jeb Bush's "One Florida Plan"
• Overturn the Hopwood decision
• Win the University of Michigan and all other affirmative action cases
• Stop the U.S. Supreme Court from resegregating higher education
• Build mass action and education
• Build a march on Washington to defend affirmative action
   

Jesse Jackson calls on students and youth to act:

On Tuesday, March 27, 2001, Federal District Court Judge Bernard Friedman made a sweeping anti-affirmative action ruling in the University of Michigan Law School case, Grutter v. Bollinger. Two days later in response, 3000 students rallied on the campus to denounce this provocative, segregationist decision and to call for a new movement to overturn it. At that rally, Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the rally's organizers, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), jointly called for a national student conference and a national march on Washington. The following are brief excerpts from Reverend Jackson's speech:

"We read about these special moments in history. You always say, 'I wish I'd been there to march on Washington.' In 1963, you weren't old enough...but this is another great moment. Today, I challenge you to have a national conference on this campus, convene students from all around the nation-from Seattle to Texas to Florida to Maine. Young America must come alive. When you come alive, you make America better...Young America, it's time to march now."

New:
Click here to see video clip of Rev. Jackson's speech
Another video clip of rally
[requires RealPlayer]

 
THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT- DEFENDING THE GAINS OF THE PAST CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT; MOVING AMERICA FORWARD

For more than five years, there has been a series of racist legal and political attacks led by the American right wing on affirmative action, integration and other civil rights gains. In response to these attacks, a new mass, integrated, militant student/youth-led civil rights movement has come to life-a movement convinced that these attacks can be defeated and new gains won. In California, university and high school students are on the verge of forcing the University of California Regents to reverse their ban on affirmative action. In Florida, Jeb Bush's "One Florida Plan" sparked the rebirth of a statewide civil rights movement that has succeeded in placing the question of racism at the center of politics in Florida. In Michigan, thousands of university and high school students have repeatedly rallied, marched and picketed to defeat the two anti-affirmative action lawsuits brought against the University of Michigan. Students in Texas and at scores of other campuses around the country have participated in National Days of Action to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration.

BUILDING A NATIONAL LEADERSHIP FOR THE NEW MOVEMENT

To win a reversal of California's Proposition 209, Washington's Initiative 200, Jeb Bush's "One Florida Plan," and other anti-affirmative action initiatives, we must elevate our movement to a higher level. We can strengthen and expand our local and statewide struggles if we can place them in the context of a visible, conscious, and growing national movement. We must not allow the U.S. Supreme Court to use the Michigan cases to resegregate higher education. The new civil rights movement must make clear to the Court that the majority of this nation stands for integration, and that we will not give up, we will not go back, and we will not stop fighting until integration and full equality are a reality.

It is time to build a national march on Washington. It is time for our generation to place the platform of the new civil rights movement for full integration, democracy, justice, and equality before the American people. It is time for the young leaders of the new civil rights movement to come together and provide a new, progressive vision and leadership to the nation.

COME TO THE CONFERENCE, BUILD THE MOVEMENT

Over the weekend of June 1-3, a national student/youth conference will be held at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The conference will be open and democratic. Student organizers and leaders from around the country are invited to attend the conference and help organize the defense of affirmative action and the struggle for integration and equality. Reverend Jesse Jackson will try to attend sections of the conference, in particular, the opening conference rally/plenary on Friday, June 1. Representatives from Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and other local and national civil rights organizations will be present. The conference will discuss how to relate to other developments taking place in the new movement around the country.

We must come together, debate, and vote on a perspective for building our national movement. We can build effective and meaningful ties with unions and with women's, environmental, and other progressive organizations here and in other countries.
 

• Send the conference announcement to your friends on other campuses!  Click here for text file (to copy & paste into email).

• Have your group sign on to support the conference:
  Email bamn@umich.edu.

• For more information, email bamn@umich.edu.

Register now!
 

CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS: Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), Rainbow/PUSH (National and U of M Chapter), United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA)
 
OTHER GROUPS HELPING TO ORGANIZE THE CONFERENCE: Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP), Law Students for Affirmative Action (LSAA), AFSCME Local 207 (Detroit water & public lighting city workers union), Michigan Student Assembly, Advocates for Student Parents, Palestine Catastrophe Committee, Student Organization of Latino/a Social Workers (SOLASW), School of Social Work Student Union, Sigma Phi Omega, Richard Stacy - Membership Committee Chair - African American Alumni Association, Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Society of Minority Engineering Students-Graduate Component (SMES-G), Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science (MUSES), University of Michigan Law School Public Interest Group (PIG), Project Serve, Students Educating and Volunteering for Health Awareness (SEVHA), Sociologists of Color (SOC), Sister 2 Sister (S2S), Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE), Student Council, Guild House Campus Ministry, University of Louisville Association of Black Students (ABSUofL), Society of American Law Teachers (SALT), National Asian Pacific American Womens Forum-DC Chapter, Marin NOW, Rouge Forum/Whole Schooling Consortium, Campus Greens, Royal Oak Education Association, International Union, UAW President Stephen P. Yokich  (Updated 5-29-01) 

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