In 2003, the critical civil rights issue facing the nation was
the defense of affirmative action at the Supreme Court in our
affirmative action cases. On April 1, the day that the U.S. Supreme
Court heard arguments in our cases, our organization, BAMN,
organized and led a 50,000-person march of students, youth and
labor, church and community activists in Washington. The Supreme
Court ruled on June 23 to uphold affirmative action in Grutter
v. Bollinger, the Law School case. Without the mass
mobilization to Washington on April 1, victory would not have been
possible. We won this stunning victory for affirmative action and
civil rights because we mobilized. Our victory derailed, but did
not decisively defeat, the right-wing attacks on affirmative
action.

Now, our victory in Grutter is under attack. The critical
civil rights issue facing the nation in 2004 will be the defense of
our victory in Grutter. Ward Connerly, the black Republican
regent of the University of California notorious for his role in
leading the campaigns for the anti-affirmative action Proposition
209 in California and Initiative 200 in Washington state, is now
attempting to organize a Prop.209 style anti-affirmative action
ballot initiative in Michigan. He is trying to nullify our Supreme
Court victory. Under the old segregationist battle standard of
“states’ rights,” Connerly is attempting to
defeat our victory at the Supreme Court through conducting a
state-by-state campaign to eliminate the gains of the civil rights
movement. Coming out of his recent defeat in California, where the
electorate voted 2 to 1 against his Proposition 54, the so-called
Racial Privacy Initiative, Connerly is in a politically weak
position to mount his campaign in Michigan, but he can still win if
supporters of integration and equality fail to act now.

Connerly’s proposed Michigan initiative is an attempt to
deal a blow to the New Civil Rights Movement in the state where we
are strongest. Recent history proves that, given the opportunity, a
majority white electorate will vote for white privilege and against
minority rights like affirmative action. The best way to defeat
Connerly’s initiative is to keep it off the ballot. Since his
active political support is so small, he has to rely on money for
his campaign to succeed. To certify an initiative for the 2004
ballot, Connerly has to get more than 317,000 signatures of
registered voters from around the state. In order to do that, he
has to pay a professional signature-gathering firm $1 to 2 per
signature. To stop Connerly’s money supply, BAMN is
organizing a national civil rights boycott of the Coors Brewing
Co.

The Coors family has had an ongoing and intimate funding
relationship with the attacks on affirmative action and civil
rights over the past 15 years, and with financing Connerly’s
initiatives in particular. We call on all supporters of integration
and affirmative action to refuse to purchase Coors products,
including Killians, Blue Moon and Keystone beers and Zima malt
liquor. Michigan students should also make every effort to contact
pro-affirmative action friends and family on other campuses and in
other states to spread the Coors boycott. Students should also call
on media outlets including local newspapers and radio stations to
refuse to carry any Coors advertisements. Local stores, bars and
restaurants should express their support for civil rights by
refusing to stock Coors products.

To win, we must mobilize mass actions along with the national
boycott of Connerly’s racist backers. On Jan. 19, Martin
Luther King Jr. Day, BAMN will be holding a march and demonstration
on campus against Connerly’s initiative. The Martin Luther
King Jr. holiday must be a living and breathing expression of the
New Civil Rights Movement and our determination to defend our
Supreme Court victory. Without the perspective of defending our
victory, any commemoration of King promises to be only a cynical
tribute that offers no opposition to the attacks on the very civil
rights that King gave his life fighting for. If Connerly succeeds
in Michigan, he will be taking his anti-affirmative action
initiative to every state that he can to nullify our Supreme Court
victory nationally. The time to act is now.

May 2004 will mark the 50-year anniversary of the Brown v.
Board of Education decision. Brown will be rendered a
dead letter if affirmative action programs are eliminated. The
separate and unequal educational opportunities that characterize
too much of American education can only be combated through
conscious, positive affirmative action. On May 15, BAMN is calling
for a national civil rights march on Washington to defend
affirmative action to realize the promise of Brown, the
promise of integration and equality in American life.