By Nicole Kief and Ana Weibgen of the ACLU Racial Justice Program
Today marks the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the greatest civil rights leaders in our nation’s history. Dr. King’s tireless work helped advance the rights of people of color throughout the United States, bringing us closer to the dream of equality for all Americans.
Dr. King and other leaders of the civil rights movement dreamed of an egalitarian society, but they never believed that racial inequality could be eliminated by ignoring race and racism in America. Dr. King supported affirmative action and advocated the use of such race-conscious measures to correct historic and ongoing discrimination against people of color.
Many Americans have learned to look beyond skin color, but the persistence and pervasiveness of disparities prove that race remains a real issue in American life. For example, researchers in Boston and Chicago found that, when two applicants with identical qualifications apply for the same job, applicants with black-sounding names are called back for interviews only half as often as applicants with white-sounding names Another study showed that a white job applicant with a prison record is more likely to get called back for second interview than a similarly-qualified black applicant with no prison record at all.
Dr. King’s vision of equality will never be achieved if we turn a blind eye to ongoing discrimination. But today, as the nation remembers Dr. King, millionaire California businessman Ward Connerly and his so-called "American Civil Rights Institute" are distorting King’s vision of a colorblind America in support of ballot initiatives that threaten one of the civil rights movement’s core principles: equal opportunity. They seek to roll back affirmative action programs in five states, misleading voters about the purpose of their initiatives by claiming the initiatives will ban discrimination and touting King’s dream of "colorblindness" in support of their efforts.
If successful, these initiatives will roll back important opportunities for people of color and women. Ten years after Connerly campaigned to end affirmative action in California, the Los Angeles Times reported that only 2% of the incoming UCLA class was African American, representing the lowest enrollment of black freshmen since 1973.
If we are serious about honoring Dr. King’s memory and continuing the fight for equality, we must confront discrimination head on by supporting affirmative action and other programs that help equalize opportunities for people of color and women.
To learn more about the importance of affirmative action, visit www.aclu.org/racialjustice/aa. For information about the ACLU’s work on women’s rights, visit www.aclu.org/womenshistory.