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Affirmative Action Supporters Rally at the U. S. Supreme Court

Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 4/4/2003

The movement to save affirmative action confirmed both its diversity and strength during an April 1st march and rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. While the Court's justices heard arguments concerning the cases Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger, one of the largest demonstrations in the history of the Supreme Court attested to enduring popularity of affirmative action in higher education.

The civil rights community has often been mischaracterized as comprising only of holdovers from the sixties era. However, this heterogeneous protest flew in the face of that sterotype.
  • Students from a number of DC high schools, alarmed that the elimination of affirmative action would jeopardize college experience, came out in enormous numbers.
  • A group of students from the University of California Berkeley was so adamant about attending the protest that they chartered a bus that literally took them across the country to be there.
  • One Detroit church sent 60 buses worth of members to protest.
  • A group of Stanford University students raised over five thousand dollars in a matter of weeks so they could fly into DC.
  • Labor unions, representing everything from steelworkers to hotel employees, gathered from all parts of the country.
  • George Washington University assembled a broad coalition of student groups such as the Islamic Alliance for Justice, National Society of Black Engineers, NAACP, Organization of Latino students, as well as a numerous other groups walking in partnership.

The rally, principally organized by the NAACP and BAMN, began in front of the Supreme Court at 9 AM. The crowd got to hear civil rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson, Ted Kennedy, Kwesi Mfume and Al Sharpton championing the necessity of a policy in higher education that addresses past and present discrimination. As the arguments on the cases came to an end just past noon, the crowd began a march from the Supreme Court to the Lincoln Memorial.

Along the way, songs like "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and "We Shall Overcome" were heard alongside "Move Bush, Get Out the Way!" an adaptation of adaptations of a recent rap hit by Ludacris. This juxtaposition of cheers brought home the intergenerational interchange that marked the whole protest. High school students stood alongside seasoned civil rights veterans in what will surely be remembered as a critical moment in the struggle for affirmative action.