New Report Traces Threats to Affirmative Action
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - February 3, 2004
In 2003, foes of equal opportunity introduced seven anti-affirmative action bills in six states, according to a new report from Americans for a Fair Chance, a project of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund.
The report, "
Anti-Affirmative Action Threats in the States: 1997-2003," provides a six-year overview of attacks that opponents of equal opportunity have made through legislation and resolutions, ballot initiative campaigns, and state executive orders. By monitoring recent news, the report also focuses on impending threats to affirmative action, particularly those by California businessman Ward Connerly, whose attacks in several states, including Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, and New Hampshire, have already begun. In Michigan, Connerly currently is organizing a petition drive to include anti-affirmative language on this November's ballot.
The highest number of threats to affirmative action in the past ten years surfaced between 1997 and 1999, according to the report. After California's Proposition 209 passed in 1996, 33 anti-affirmative action bills were introduced in 15 states. In 1998, 16 bills were proposed in nine states, and in 1999, 20 bills were introduced in 14 states.
The period from 2000 to 2003 saw fewer threats to affirmative action at the state level, with seven anti-affirmative action bills or resolutions introduced in five different states in 2000. In 2001, four proposals were introduced in four different states, and in 2002, seven bills were introduced in four states.
Despite the continued campaigns against affirmative action, in 2003, voters defeated California's Proposition 54 – a follow-up to Connerly's 1996 Proposition 209 that banned the use of affirmative action programs in the state.
