The Project
Make your organization’s participation in the civil rights
march marking the 50-year anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education your
group project for the coming year. On Saturday, 15 May 2004 you and your
organization must be at this historic civil rights march on Washington.
The Perspective
This march must transcend commemoration; we must hail that
historic ruling by fighting to realize the promise of integration and equality
in American society. Begin organizing contingents from your region now. Go to
churches, high schools, unions, civic organizations, etc. Get them signed on to
the perspective of the march. Participate in Martin Luther King Day celebrations
and Brown commemorations and raise the necessity of civil rights struggle
today to make real the integration and equality that Brown promised 50
years ago. This must be a general political campaign that mobilizes public
opinion and builds the new civil rights movement for integration and equality.
Get your city council, executive board and student government to pass a
resolution calling for realizing the promise of Brown and confirming
Brown’s declaration that separate can never be equal and endorsing the
Brown march.
The Reasons
We are in the middle of an historic struggle. It is a
struggle that will define the character and direction of this nation.
Affirmative action is a desegregation program. It must be defended on the basis
of its original intent which was to offset the institutional inequalities of our
society and integrate our schools and workplaces. The essential aim of the
opponents of affirmative action is to render Brown meaningless by
outlawing any measure that could secure the integration that Brown
proposed as the only solution to separate and unequal education. Our victories
have checked the momentum of this attack, but it is not yet finished.
The approaching 50 year anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education will
be commemorated and celebrated by virtually every school and college in the
country. Many of these events and the people who attend them will be genuinely
concerned with achieving integration and equality. We have the perspective they
need. We must move from a commemoration in words to a struggle of deeds. It is
hollow and hypocritical for the country to celebrate the decision that declared
that separate could never be equal while segregation has increased for a
generation. We must say – NO MORE SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL. We must confront the
country with the discrepancy between its ideals and the reality of today’s
education. We must launch the struggle to make real the promise of Brown.
The Tools
A series of the tools you need will be posted and
printable from www.bamn.com. (Posters, flyers, information about segregation in
K-12 education, press release, draft resolutions, fundraising letters, etc.)
Voted and ratified by the
Seventh National Conference of the New Civil Rights Movement, November 9, 2003
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