Conyers discusses affirmative action, Bush

By Louie Meizlish

Daily Staff Reporter

"Happy Birthday, Martin Luther King," said Rep. John Conyers, the congressman who first introduced legislation to make King's birthday a national holiday, during a speech yesterday at the Law Quad.

The gathering at Hutchins Hall, which was largely a rally for the University in support of its stance on affirmative action, attracted about 150 people.

Shanta Driver, national director of United for Equality and Affirmative Action, said the lawsuit, which goes to trial beginning today, will be "the most important case certainly of the new century."

"For the first time, the very criteria that are used in the admissions process ... standardized tests, GPA, will be scrutinized and students will be able to stand up to ... the criteria that are infected with racism and infected with sexism," Driver said.

While the speakers that introduced Conyers focused mostly on affirmative action-related issues, Conyers broadened the scope of his speech to such topics as the incoming presidency and its effect on the civil rights movement.

Referring to President-elect Bush's choices for his Cabinet, Conyers (D-Detroit) said, "It's almost like a bad dream, all these people he's dug up."

When questioned following his speech, Conyers added that he did not think much of Bush's plan to implement affirmative action without the use of quotas, dubbed "affirmative access."

"That's something he made out of thin air to explain the fact that he's against affirmative action. Nobody's ever heard of it before."

Conyers said it was often difficult to combat racial injustice and inequality during the last six years of President Clinton's presidency because of the Republican domination in Congress.

"You can use the bully pulpit all you want but when the whip, (Texas Rep. Tom) Delay, is keeping people in line on the Republican side, it's very hard to get things through," Conyers said.

With regards to the overall outcome of the presidential election, he was equally upset. "In some ways it was stolen," Conyers said, "but it was really taken."

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision to halt the Florida recount, he said, "will take its place among Dred Scott and Plessy - all these things you have to come back and clean up."

Conyers also decried the low turnout among blacks.

"Why not have Election Day a holiday?" he asked. "Black males are voting at a national rate of 48 percent - it's abysmal. A democratic society can go under if less than 50 percent of the population is participating."

Students in the audience said they felt encouraged by Conyers' visit.

"The impact of him coming down shows what kind of support there is for the civil rights movement," said LSA sophomore Agnes Aleobua, one of the intervening defendants in the lawsuit and a member of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary.

"We can have more students charter (a bus) here," said Doron Pratt, an Engineering sophomore at the University's Flint campus.

But, he added, "Basically I feel we're sleeping on the issue at the University of Michigan."