Johnnie L. Cochran, Jr., who became America’s most famous lawyer, as he defended the poor and anonymous, as well as the rich and famous, died on March 29, 2004. To African Americans and others, he was like a “fallen warrior” as he confronted “unchecked police violence” and believed it to be the defining issue among Black people. He is known to have successfully defended rapper/entrepreneur Sean “Puffy” Combs, former professional football player/actor Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson, rapper Snoop Dogg, former heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe, NBA player Latrell Sprewell, former “Different Strokes” TV star, Todd Bridges, Black Panther Party Elmer “Geronimo” Pratt, rapper/actor Tupac Shakur and singer Michael Jackson.

However, what he is not known for is his work in defense of affirmative action as a means of providing opportunity to people of color. In 1995 and 1996 when I chaired the California Business Campaign of over 80 organizations to defeat State Proposition 209, ‘gutting” affirmative action, he insisted that our Southern California office be located in his law offices and assigned an attorney to assist us as required. Sometimes I would be leaving his office at 10 pm and Cochran would still be there with his full legal staff preparing for trial the next day. Many attributed his success not only to his brilliance, but also to his hard work. He is also known to have provided the first major contribution to the general campaign against Prop 209, then co-chaired by Eva Patterson of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, San Francisco.

Earlier, when Cochran was Chair of the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners he would strategize on affirmative action opportunities with Andrew Jeanpierre, President of the San Francisco International Airport Commission and myself as the President of the San Francisco Parking and Traffic Commission. As a result of Johnnie’s insistence, Jeanpierre sent the San Francisco Airport administrators to the Atlanta Airport to review its most successful program and subsequently the San Francisco International Airport logged in 43% minority business participation for engineers and architects on its $3.4 billion expansion. Not to be outdone and buoyed by our strategy, I worked with my San Francisco Parking and Traffic Commission, with 21 parking facilities, to award 72% of its parking management contracts to minority and women firms. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith,” was the quote on Cochran’s April 5, 2005 memorial service program.
Two days before Cochran fell, the new UC Berkeley Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, gave the “diversity crisis” as his priority in the Los Angeles Times. He cited the drop in African American freshman students from 260 before Prop 209 to the 2004-05 class of just 108 of the 3,600-entering freshman. As a rising leader of affirmative action, he also noted that there was not one African American among 800 entering engineering students. Immediately, the Chancellor’s “Call to Action’ has inspired affirmative action proponents to new levels of activity to render mute or overturn Prop 209. “Minority inclusion is a public good, not a private benefit,” states the Chancellor, Robert Birgeneau.

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