How to Keep Our Nation on the Path to Equality

The only way to overturn the current (and any future) bans on affirmative action and to keep our nation on the path to racial progress is to build the new civil rights movement with a strong organization and an integrated youth leadership. Maintaining two of Dr. Martin Luther King’s overarching political principles is the key to victory. First, while working with all those who are prepared to act, it is essential that the movement maintain its political independence from political parties and elected officials. Politicians have agendas and priorities which often conflict with a winning strategy. Secondly, to build the kind of broad, powerful movement needed to restore and expand the gains of the old civil rights movement, we must build our organization on an integrated basis – black, Latina/o, Arab, Asian, Native American and white – fighting together to expand the whole pie, rather than competing against each other for a few crumbs.