January 20-26, 2003
 at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor

 Monday, January 20, 2003 -
Martin Luther King Birthday Holiday:

 * National MLK Day March and Rally *

Download Poster as a PDF file

12:00 Noon:
March in Defense of Affirmative Action, Integration, & the Fight for Equality at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor (Assemble at South University and Forest)

1:00PM:
Rally - Build the March on Washington, Save Brown v. Board of Education! - (Chemistry Building, Room 1800)

Featured speakers include:

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Shanta Driver, UEAA National Director, BAMN National Spokesperson

Student and youth civil rights activists

Judge Greg Mathis, Michigan 36th District Court

Rev. Wendell Anthony, President of the Detroit Branch of the NAACP

Frank Wu, Professor of Law, Howard University

Marjorie McWilliams, Executive Board Vice President, Detroit Federation of Teachers

Ron Richardson, Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), Vice Pres.

Representative from the Arab American Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS)

Linda Varonich, President of Michigan NOW
 

3:00PM-5:00PM Mass meeting of the New Civil Rights Movement (Chemistry Building, Room 1800)
 

Wednesday, January 22, 2003:

2:00PM-4:00 PM: Conference registration (Michigan Union, Sophia B. Jones Room, 1st Floor)

4:00PM: Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger: Standing Shoulder to Shoulder, Defending Affirmative Action before the Supreme Court. A panel discussion. Question/answer session to follow (250 Hutchins Hall, U of M Law School)

Moderator: Emery King, Chief Political Correspondent and News Anchor for WDIV Channel 4 Detroit

Evan Caminker, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs of the University of Michigan Law School

Miranda Massie, UEAA and BAMN - attorney for the student defendants in Grutter v. Bollinger

Theodore Shaw, NAACP Legal Defense Fund - attorney for student defendants in Gratz v. Bollinger

 

Thursday, January 23, 2003:

10:00AM-12:00PM: The leading role of women in the defense of affirmative action (Michigan Union, Balloom)

Elizabeth Cole, Professor of Afro American & African Studies/Women's Studies, University of Michigan:  Uniting the Fight for Women's Equality and Black Equality

Faith Smith, President of Native American Educational Services: Native American rights and the fight for affirmative action

Caroline Wong, BAMN National Organizer: Building young women's leadership of the New Civil Rights Movement

Winnie Kao, UEAA Attorney: The gains of integration in the lives of women

12:00PM-1:00PM: Lunch (Michigan Union, Ballroom)

Keynote speaker - Hon. Mary Frances Berry, Chairperson,
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

1:00PM-3:00PM: The Fight for Women's Equality and the Defense of Affirmative Action (Michigan Union, Ballroom)

Terry O'Neill, Vice President of NOW: Mobilizing young women in defense of affirmative action and Title IX

Jodi Masley, UEAA Attorney and BAMN National Organizer: Building a new civil rights movement to win the fight for women's equality

7:00PM-9:00PM Brown v. Board of Education: Why we wage this
fight to defend integration (Rackham Auditorium)

Peter Irons, UC San Diego Professor: The state of K-12 desegregation: Renewing the fight for integration

Cheryl Brown Henderson, family spokesperson for the plaintiffs of Brown v. Board of Education: Our struggle for integration

Shanta Driver, National Director of UEAA, National Spokesperson for BAMN: Building the March on Washington, restoring the promise of Brown

Friday, January 24, 2003

9:00AM-11:00AM: Leading the fight for dignity and equality: The role of high school and middle school students in the new civil rights movement (Rackham Auditorium)

Featured speaker - Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth: The role of youth in the Battle for Birmingham

The critical role of youth in the struggle for integration - Lisa Resch, BAMN National High School Organizer

Building Detroit high school/middle school student leadership of the New Civil Rights Movement - Tristan Taylor, Ramone Davis, and Candice Young, BAMN Organizers, Eastern Michigan University

Revitalizing the establishment civil rights leadership - Deana Jackson, BAMN Organizer, Cass Tech High School, Detroit

Why high school and middle school students must lead this fight - Liana Mulholland, BAMN Organizer, Cass Tech High School, Detroit

11:00AM-12:00PM: Lunch break

12:00PM-3:30PM: Arming ourselves with the truth

12-1PM Plenary: The social construction of race - Gilbert Gee, Assistant Professor of Public Health, University of Michigan (Rackham Auditorium)

1-1:15PM: Break

1:15-2:15PM: How standardized tests discriminate against minority students - Jay Rosner, Dir. of Princeton Review Foundation & David White, Director of Testing for the Public (Rackham Auditorium)

1:15-2:15PM: How hostile environment lowers minority student grade point average - Walter Allen, UCLA Professor of Sociology and Danny Solorzano, UCLA Professor of Education; UCLA Students Daniela Pineda, Ederlen Casillas, Reina Dyer, and Michaele Turnage (Natural Sciences Auditorium)

2:15-2:30PM: Break

2:30-3:30PM: The two presentations above repeat

3:30PM-5:00PM: Presentations by area high school students (Rackham Auditorium)

The Petition and Pledge Campaign in the high schools/middle schools

Building BAMN chapters in the high schools and middle schools

Using the internet to organize, mobilize, and connect high school and middle school students

Fundraising and other practical organizing for buses to Washington

5:00PM-6:30PM: Dinner break

6:30PM-...: Poetry slam and talent show (Neutral Zone, 637 S Main St.)
 

Saturday, January 25, 2003

9:00AM-11:00AM: Saving Brown: Turning American society back towards progress (Rackham Auditorium)

Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Professor of Sociology, Texas A & M: From Jim Crow to colorblind racism: The struggle to defeat the ideology of white supremacy must continue

Gary Orfield, Director of Harvard Civil Rights Project: Separate and unequal: Growing segregation in American education

Bill Kidder, Attorney: California, Texas, and Florida: Why we must have affirmative action programs to achieve integration and diversity

Pedro Noguera, Professor of Education, Harvard University: Defending the gains of school integration

Luke Massie, BAMN National Organizer: Why we stand and fight for full equality

11:00AM-12:15PM: Mobilization panels for the March on Washington (Angell Hall - room assignments to be announced)

Panel 1: Mobilizing on college campuses

Tiffany Bloom, BAMN National Organizer

Marshall Rose, Director, Affirmative Action Office, Bowling Green State University

Vinay Harpalani, student organizer and Ph.D candidate, University of Pennsylvania

Jeff Johnson, NAACP Youth and College Division Director (invited)

Panel 2: Mobilizing the unions

John Riehl, President of AFSCME Local 207

Mark Gaffney, President of the Michigan AFL-CIO

Panel 3: Mobilizing high school and middle school students

Caroline Wong, BAMN National Organizer

Lisa Resch, BAMN National High School Organizer

Sarah Barnard, BAMN Organizer, University of Michigan

Yvette Felarca, Oakland Unified School District teacher, California Teachers Association State Council

Panel 4: Mobilizing other movements for justice

Speaker, International A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to End War and Racism)

Panel 5: Race and the Media: Bringing the Students' Case to
the Public

Trevor Coleman, Editorial Writer, Detroit Free Press

Panel 6: Mobilizing the legal community

Paula Johnson, Co-President of Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)

Law students from the University of New Mexico

12:15-1PM: Lunch break

1-2:30PM: Indoor rally - Taking the Pledge: Mobilizing for the March on Washington (Rackham Auditorium)

Opening remarks by Shanta Driver, BAMN, UEAA

Speakers:

Rev. Jesse Jackson, Founder of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Rev. Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network

Hector Flores, President of League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)

Hon. John Conyers, U.S. Congressional Representative, 14th
District of Michigan

Dr. James Zogby, President  of the Arab American Institute

Invited speakers also include:
Kweisi Mfume*, President of the NAACP

2:30PM-4:00PM: Latina/os leading the fight for affirmative action
and integration (Rackham Auditorium)

Margaret Montoya, Professor of Law, University of New Mexico

Hector Flores, President of LULAC

4-4:15PM: Break

4:15-6:30PM Area mobilization reports (Rackham Auditorium)

Including representatives from University of Michigan, University of California, Howard University, Eastern Michigan University, University of Kansas, Texas Christian University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania

Opening remarks by Tanya Troy-Sanabria, BAMN National Outreach Coordinator

6:30-7:30PM: Dinner break

Sunday, January 26, 2002

9:00AM-12:30PM: Plenary: Discussion and votes on resolutions (Rackham Auditorium)

12:30PM-1:30PM: Lunch

1:30PM-3:00PM Conference wrap-up (Rackham Auditorium)

[*] denotes invited guest speaker

For updates on room locations, re-visit this webpage or check easel in lobby of Michigan union, or check Room 4134 in the Michigan Union

Sponsors:

Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), United for Equality and Affirmative Action (UEAA), University of Michigan Anthropology Department, U of M Center for African and Afro-American Studies, U of M Comprehensive Studies Program, U of M History Department, U of M Institute for Research of Women and Gender, U of M School of Social Work, U of M School of Education, U of M Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, U of
M Women's Studies Department, U of M Program in American Culture, Women in Science and Engineering at U of M, Association for India's Development (AID), Black Student Union of Community High School, Kellogg Foundation, Rackham Graduate School of U of M, Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)