To affirmative action proponents, there is still some joy in Mudville, because Mighty Casey has NOT struck out. A frontal attack on Proposition 209, that threw out affirmative action in California in 1996, was launched when the State of California Court of Appeals ruled that San Francisco could reinstate its affirmative action program for minority and women owned contractors. The ruling essentially said that a history of discrimination justifies affirmative action or preferential treatment under the Constitution’s Federal Equal Protection clause, despite what California’s Proposition 209 mandated. In overturning the decision by Superior Court Judge James Warren, the Appellate Court said that Warren’s ruling assumed that Proposition 209 is the last word. It is NOT. The federal equal protection clause is THE LAST WORD.

Meanwhile, an Alameda County Superior Court ruling provided a rear attack on Prop 209 by allowing the Berkeley Unified School District to consider race as one of many factors in assigning students to schools. Both cases were handled by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and indicate for the first time that Prop 209 is vunerable. It is NOT THE LAST WORD!

Last year, only 100 Black freshman enrolled at UCLA in a class of 4,800. This year, UCLA has offered admission to 392 African American students. But Ward Connerly, the Black former UC Regent and architect of Prop 209, continues his assault on affirmative action, which was established to help his own people. He announced on April 23, 2007 that he would seek to place a Prop 209 styled referendum on the ballot to ban affirmative action in Colorado in November 2008, followed by similar campaigns in Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma.

"It is ironic, that while the States of Maryland and Virginia have now apologized for their parts in slavery, Ward Connerly's activities seem to keep African Americans as chattel,” states Rev. Romney Darkins of Peace and Joy Christian Center, Oakland. She continued, "He may be successful in convincing the people to vote against affirmative action in some states with his deceptive words, such as calling his referendums civil rights measures, but in the end, his Maker will have the "last word."

“History is strewn thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill, but that a lie, well told, is immortal.” -Mark Twain

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