TBy Agnes Aleobua and Kate Stenvig 
he U.S. Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action. The new civil rights movement has scored a stunning victory.
The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision was roundly protected. The principle of affirmative action has been reaffirmed by this very conservative high court. This landmark case will come to be remembered as the Brown v. Board of Education of our generation – a legal turning point that helped trigger a mass struggle for integration.
This victory would have been impossible if not for the 50,000-person national March on Washington on April 1 which was organized and led by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action & Integration, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary. With this victory, we have begun to turn the tide nationally against the right-wing assault on civil rights. We will defend and expand this victory with the power of the new, militant, integrated, youth-led civil rights movement. The process of moving U.S. society once again in the direction of integration and equality is under way.
We have saved Brown v. Board of Education and are now in a stronger position than at any point in the past 30 years to realize the promise of Brown – integration and equality in U.S. education.
The Supreme Court decision in the Grutter v. Bollinger case overturns the Hopwood and Johnson decisions from the lower courts that have re-segregated the U.S. South. The South has now been opened for integration again! The minority outreach programs, summer bridge programs and minority scholarships that have been threatened by right-wing forces in recent months are now broadly protected.
While the Court’s ruling in Grutter affirms the legality of considering race in college admissions, their decision in Gratz leaves the door open for a new set of segregationist attacks on affirmative action. The coalition pledges to remain vigilant in leading the new civil rights movement to defeat any and all further attacks on affirmative action, integration and civil rights.
This new civil rights movement must now go on the offensive. We will fight to realize the promise of integration written in the Brown decision almost 50 years ago has yet to be fulfilled in K-12 education. We will defeat Proposition 209 in California, initiative 200 Washington and Jeb Bush’s One Florida plan.
The Supreme Court decision in the Grutter case makes clear that it is well within the law for colleges and universities to consider race in admissions to achieve integrated student bodies. In light of this ruling, there is no excuse for a drop in minority enrollment at the University or at any college or university nationwide.
University administrations must do whatever is necessary to maintain and increase the number of underrepresented minority students. Now is the time for the University to reinvigorate effective affirmative action programs for a truly integrated student body. The full commitment of the University to integration will serve as an example to other colleges and universities around the country.
Agnes Aleobua and Kate Stenvig, University of Michigan student By Any Means Necessary leaders and organizers of the April 1 National Civil Rights March on Washington. They can be reached, respectively, at [email protected] and [email protected]
