____________________________________________________________________ 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 Street between South University & Monroe) ____________________________________________________________________ - 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." ____________________________________________________________________ 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. ========================================== = REGISTER NOW! = = Go to: http://www.bamn.com/conference = ========================================== ____________________________________________________________________ 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 5-31-01)  To have your group sign on to support the conference, email bamn@umich.edu ____________________________________________________________________ ***** PROPOSED AGENDA ***** The conference will be open and democratic. All decisions at the conference will be made on the basis of free and open discussion and democratic majority vote. ==================== Friday, June 1, 2001 ==================== 9:00 REGISTRATION 9:30-11:30 PLENARY SESSION: Fighting for our futures: Organizing high school students to fight for affirmative action, integration in K-12 education, and full social equality 12:00 RALLY AND MARCH (Tentative speakers list includes Reverend Jesse Jackson) 1:00-2:00 LUNCH 2:00-5:00 HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT LEADERSHIP MEETING 5:00-6:30 DINNER 6:30-7:30 REGISTRATION 7:30- PLENARY SESSION: Placing segregation and inequality on trial: The U of M Law School student defendants' case for affirmative action ===================== Saturday, June 2, 2001 ====================== 9:00-10:00 REGISTRATION 10:00-12:00 PLENARY AND DISCUSSION: Building the new national civil rights movement Speaker topics will include: 1) An overview of where we stand now in the defense of affirmative action; 2) Inequality in K-12 education in America: why we must integrate our schools; 3) The role of unions in building the new civil rights movement; 4) Why high school, university and other youth leaders must step forward now; 5) A plan of action to build the new civil rights movement; 6) Relations with the women's movement 12:00-1:00 LUNCH 1:00-2:30 PLENARY SESSION: Reports on how to defeat the attacks on affirmative action from key states 1) The state of the political struggle and the development of the new civil rights movement in California: How to overturn Proposition 209 2) The state of the political struggle and the development of the new civil rights movement in Florida: How to overturn Jeb Bush's "One Florida Initiative" 3) The state of the political struggle and the development of the new civil rights movement in Michigan: Winning the University of Michigan affirmative action cases 4) The state of the political struggle and the development of the new civil rights movement in other parts of the nation 2:30-3:00 BREAK 3:00-4:30 WORKSHOPS: Groups and individuals are encouraged to add additional workshops. 1) Asian Americans and affirmative action: mobilizing to defeat the rising tide of anti-Asian racism 2) Linking the struggles for women's rights, lesbian/gay rights and youth rights to the movement for affirmative action and integration 3) Defending and extending school integration programs; the struggle against racism in America's high schools 4:30-6:00 WORKSHOPS: 1) Linking the struggle for affirmative action to the environmental and anti-capitalist, anti-globalization struggle 2) Reparations and the struggle for affirmative action, integration, and equality-defining the aims of our movement 3) The April 2001 uprising in Cincinnati: Putting racism and police brutality back at the center of the American political agenda 6:00-7:30 DINNER 7:30- POETRY SLAM & INFORMAL GET-TOGETHER ==================== Sunday, June 3, 2001 ==================== 9:30-12:00 PLENARY SESSION: Workshop reports; discussion and vote on resolutions including on a program and strategy for building the new civil rights movement 12:00-1:00 LUNCH 1:00-3:00 CONTINUATION OF MORNING PLENARY SESSION 3:00-5:00 ORGANIZING SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING 5:00-6:00 CLOSING REMARKS ___________________________________________________________ University of Michigan Ann Arbor student paper article on the conference: ___________________________________________________________ Michigan Daily, April 16, 2001 NATIONAL CONFERENCE IN THE WORKS by Maria Sprow Daily Staff Reporter When the Rev. Jesse Jackson came to Ann Arbor for a rally in support of affirmative action following U.S. District Judge Bernard Friedman's ruling striking down the University's use of race as a factor in admission to the Law School, he challenged students and the University to become active members and leaders of a new civil rights movement. Jackson specifically asked campus leaders to hold a national civil rights conference this spring, as well as participate in a national march on Washington next year. Rising to that challenge, members of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary are making preliminary plans to host the conference, planned for June 1-3. Though the dates were announced a few days ago, representatives of several schools, including Colorado State University, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania have already reserved spots at the conference. Other schools expected to send representatives to the conference are the University of Texas, where the Hopwood v. Texas decision banned the use of race in admissions; the University of Florida, which recently held a rally to protest Gov. Jeb Bush's One Florida Initiative that would end the use of race in admissions there; and the University of Virginia. "These are schools we have been in contact with in the past and we expect to keep in contact with in the future," said Rackham student and BAMN member Jessica Curtin. BAMN has sent an e-mail invitation to campuses across the country. "We've made contact with people we've never had contact with before," Curtin said. The announcement urges young leaders to provide a "new, progressive vision and leadership to the nation." The conference is expected to include anywhere from 30 to 200 students from around the nation who act as civil rights leaders in their own areas, Curtin said. "If we can get even one or two people from every school that is taking a part in the new civil rights movement, then they can go back with new ideas and be organizers at their school for this fight," Curtin said. The purpose of the conference is to take grass-roots campaigns at universities and nationalize them by allowing movement leaders to share their ideas and strategize ways to overturn the decision against the University of Michigan Law School and the Hopwood decision. The conference will also be a key to planning a national march in Washington - tentatively scheduled for either January or February - tied to either Martin Luther King Jr. Day or Black History Month. "This is not going to be primarily an educational kind of conference," Curtin said. "It's going to be a ‘What do we do next?' kind of conference." Curtin said another march could be scheduled for October in Cincinnati, where the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear the case against the Law School. The Rainbow/PUSH coalition, founded by Jackson, is promoting the conference. BAMN is hoping Jackson will be in town for at least part of the event, especially the opening rally June 1. Other groups organizing or supporting the event are the Michigan Student Assembly, School of Social Work Student Union, African American Alumni Association, Project SERVE, Alpha Phi Omega fraternity and the Defend Affirmative Action Party. MSA signed a list of supporters against Friedman's ruling and passed a resolution in defense of affirmative action. "The assembly has time and time again supported affirmative action and this was just another step in that direction," said MSA President Matt Nolan. Regardless of whether Jackson comes to town, Curtin said, the conference will be a huge step for the civil rights movement. "I think that this conference will be extremely significant because it will put the local struggles into a nationally coordinated framework," she said. "This is the first conference of its kind." Not everyone on campus is happy that a conference will be held here. "I just think it's a cowardly move to hold it during the summer when I can't protest it," said LSA freshman Adam Dancy, who has protested BAMN events in the past. "I'm actually disappointed." Dancy said he does not think the conference will make a difference on a national level. "If they decide on anything it's not going to make a difference," he said. "It's going to be a worthless couple of days." A mass organizational meeting will take place on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the MSA Chambers on the third-floor of the Michigan Union.