Jackson Rallies Support for Affirmative Action
An estimated 350 students gathered for a rally at Cal State L.A. on Monday in support of restoring affirmative action in the state’s public universities.
Civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson visited the campus to rally support for the Equal Opportunity Education Initiative.
The initiative, sponsored by Students for Educational Opportunity, a group formed by UC Berkeley law students, calls for the state to consider “economic background, race, sex, ethnicity and national origin of qualified individuals” in the selection of students for the state’s public universities, said Stacy Ford of the Pan African Student Resource Center at the campus.
Proposition 209 has banned preferences based on race, ethnicity and gender for state contracts and admissions to public schools.
The Berkeley group is touring campuses around the state to garner support for the new initiative, and it hopes to put the matter to voters as early as November, Ford said.
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