As you may know, on June 5, 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its plan to hear two school desegregation cases, Meredith v Jefferson County Public Schools and Parents Involved in Community Schools v Seattle School District in its 2006-2007 term. These two cases will determine the fate of school integration plans across the nation. If the Supreme Court strikes down these two school integration plans, Brown v Board of Education will be dead. Segregated, separate and unequal education will become the law of the land.
A loss in these cases would outlaw all desegregation measures; states would be barred from taking steps to integrate. School districts which have implemented voluntary integration policies for decades would be forced by law to resegregate their schools. Poor Latina/o and black students would find the doors of high quality integrated public schools, including magnet schools, closed to them. A ban on the consideration of race to integrate K-12 public education would also inevitably undermine the Court’s 2003 ruling upholding the legality of affirmative action programs.
BAMN (The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration, Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary) is initiating an education and outreach campaign to increase awareness, and to build for a March on Washington to defend integration on the day that the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in these landmark cases.
I would really appreciate it if you would call me at your convenience to discuss the possibility of having a BAMN speaker at your next event to give a presentation on these cases. My phone number is 313-468-3398 and my email is donnastern@bamn.com.
For more information about the cases:http://docket.medill.northwestern.edu/archives/003698.php
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/06/05/scotus.schools.race/
http://www.bamn.com/brownmarch2006/usatodayeditorial.pdf
http://www.bamn.com/brownmarch2006/louisianaweekly.pdf
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