Dear Civil Rights
Supporter:
We are winning! BAMN and the new civil rights movement we have been building are
defeating the rightwing attacks on civil rights and affirmative
action! As this David-and-Goliath fight continues we will need
your help to continue winning.
BAMN, with its slim resources and deeply committed volunteer corps of
organizers, administrators, public speakers and civil rights
attorneys, is fighting and WINNING the battle against wealthy,
well-connected right-wing foundations such as the Center for
Individual Rights (CIR), the Pacific Legal Foundation and Ward
Connerly's mis-named American Civil Rights Coalition (ACRC).
Only the combination of our
determined young volunteers and your generosity in
support of civil rights can keep us moving forward.
Last June, BAMN won a historic battle
for integration as the student defendants in the University of
Michigan affirmative action case, Grutter v. Bollinger.
BAMN organized the 50,000-strong April 1st
Civil Rights March on Washington which was key to convincing
the Supreme Court to uphold affirmative action. On the heels of
that victory, we helped to defeat Connerly's Proposition 54, the
so-called "Racial Privacy Initiative" last October in California.
Just in the last month, BAMN,
together with 300 black, Latino, Asian and white parents, students
and teachers from Berkeley, California public schools, were admitted
as intervenor-defendants in the landmark voluntary desegregation
case, Avila v. the Berkeley Unified School District.
After BAMN organized students, parents and teachers to picket and
fill the courtroom for the first hearing on the case, the judge
dismissed the claims of the Pacific Legal Foundation that
B.U.S.D.'s desegregation plan was discriminatory or a violation of
Proposition 209. The judge also granted the interveners a voice in
the case in anticipation of its appeal.
In Michigan, where Ward Connerly and
the segregationists he represents were attempting to get an
anti-affirmative action referendum on the November 2004 ballot,
BAMN won its lawsuit challenging the wording of the so-called
‘Michigan Civil Rights Initiative' ballot petition, on the basis
that it was deceptive and misleading. This legal victory, in
combination with our relentless state-wide campaign against the
initiative, forced MCRI to admit defeat and to call it quits on
Friday, April 16th, three months before the
deadline for submitting petition signatures.
To put a final end to ACRC's efforts
to outlaw affirmative action for women and minorities, and prevent
Connerly from taking his anti-affirmative action campaign to more
‘hospitable' territory next year, our new civil rights movement must
demonstrate boldness and determination on a national
scale.
The 50th Anniversary of
Brown v. Board of Education provides us the perfect opportunity
to do this. That is why BAMN is sponsoring a Civil Rights
March on Washington to Realize the Unfulfilled Promise of Brown
v. Board of Education and to Defend Affirmative Action on May
15, 2004. We will march to demand an end to separate and
unequal education in America and to end the right wing attacks on
affirmative action, civil rights and immigrant rights. We will march
to launch a new phase of struggle to realize the simple promise of
Brown v. Board of Education - the promise of integration and
equality in American education at all levels. After the march there
will be a two-day conference of the New Civil Rights Movement at
Howard University to plan our strategy for the coming year. (For
more information about these exciting events, please see our website
at www.bamn.com)
But we need your help to succeed.
BAMN has lower administrative costs than any active
organization in the country - we are currently functioning with a
completely volunteer staff. Despite this, organizing costs money,
and we desperately need funds for court costs, (we have been charged
$300 per intervener in the Avila case alone), to finance
travel and accommodations for our attorneys and speakers and for the
March on Washington. To make the march successful, we will need tens
of thousands of dollars for buses to transport students to the
march, to rent sound and stage equipment, and to house students so
that they can attend both the march and the conference which follows
it.
Please make a donation to BAMN today
and contribute to the dynamic new civil rights movement which has
already achieved so much with so little -- and, with your support --
will win much, much more.
Sincerely,
Shanta Driver
BAMN Co-Chair and National Spokesperson
P.S. Don't delay - the march is less than one month away!
Use
the online form above, or send your check today to:
BAMN
P.O. Box 24834
Detroit MI 48224
If you prefer to make a
tax-deductible donation for either the March or for our legal
work, you may write your check out to:
United
for Equality and Affirmative Action Legal Defense Fund
P.O. Box 24462
Kensington Station
Detroit, MI 48224
Yes! I'd
like to donate:
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$3,500 will finance a bus
from the Midwest to Washington DC |
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$1,000 will finance
housing for 15 students. |
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$500 will finance airfare
and accommodations for 2 students from the West Coast to
attend the march and conference |
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___ |
$350 will finance a bus
for students from Baltimore, Prince Georges and Montgomery
Counties |
|
___ |
$200 will sponsor travel
and housing for a student to attend the march and the
conference from the
Midwest or pay for a West Coast student's airline ticket |
|
___ |
$75 will sponsor bus
travel for one student to attend the march from the Midwest |
|
___ |
$50 will sponsor bus
travel for one student from New York to attend the march |
|
___ |
$25 will sponsor bus
travel for one student from Philadelphia to attend the march |
Name:
_________________________________________________
Street:
_________________________________________________
City: __________________ State: ___________ Zip:____________
Donation
Amount: $____________ Receipt? _Y N_ |
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