Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA

Worthwhile 4-part series by The Courier Journal exploring the student assignment plans and history of integration efforts in Louisville's Jefferson County Public schools as well as the district's new proposal and ramifications for integration and equity. Co-director Orfield is cited in 2 of 4 installments. https://www.courier-journal.com//jcps-busing-p/6093841002/

Today is the 75th anniversary of the trial court decision in Mendez v. Westminster, a major milestone in the civil rights history of #CA and the Latino communit...y which predates other important education equality cases like Brown v. Board of Ed. Read more: https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/reco/1119217/files/fulltext.pdf See more

Join us this Saturday, Feb. 13 for the virtual summit "Activists x Academics," focused on racial justice in K-12 public schools. General registration and the schedule are at: https://www.teenstakecharge.com/summit Co-hosted by Teens Take Charge and The Civil Rights Project at UCLA, Activists x Academics will feature youth working to create more integrated, equitable, restorative, affirming school systems that give students real power in decision making....Continue reading

Registration for #ActivistsXAcademics on February 13 is live! This will be an innovative and deeply important event on racial justice in public schools with our partners at https://teenstakecharge.com/ Grateful to the scholars and dozens of youth organizers who are about to light this summit on fire! Visit the summit website for the full list of speakers and get your tickets! ... https://teenstakecharge.com/summit See more

Save the Date! Sign up to receive registration info https://www.teenstakecharge.com/summit for our upcoming Feb. 13th event ACTIVISTS X ACADEMICS with Teens Take Charge! Presenters include Sup. Luis Alejo, Elise Boddie, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Gary Orfield, and youth activists. Join us!

2021 can be a year of expanding civil rights. 2020 saw a historic interracial mobilization of people in every state demanding racial justice. Now with a new administration which has committed itself to civil rights there are important opportunities to turn passion into policy, though all of them will require a great deal of work and care. This year will bring the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Civil Rights Project and we plan studies and events that will provide the analysis, the scholarship, and the opportunities for researchers, advocates, agencies, and policymakers to think together about how to overcome racial polarization and move toward justice. HAPPY NEW YEAR. Time to get to work.

See our new report showing the status of Black students, segregation and educational opportunity and urging the incoming Biden administration to confront pervasive segregation. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//BLACK-SEGREGATION

CRP Co-director Patricia Gándara is one of various researchers speaking at tomorrow's virtual symposium, "Children of Immigrants in the Age of Deportation." See the Zoom link in the image below.

A second voter resource, which describes the impacts of affirmative action bans nationally, is available now on our website for CA voters: http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//policy-brief-schol

New resources related to Proposition 16 are available for CA voters! Check out the first, a short but dense research synthesis by Research Associate William Kidder. http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//a-brighter-future-

Dan Losen, our colleague, the country's leading researcher on school suspension and its harmful consequence and co-author Paul Martinez have just published an important report on the unequal impact of lost education and have suggested better solutions. This is an area where some school districts have achieved major breakthroughs, others lag seriously behind, and Black students suffer the most. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//Lost-Opportunitie

Hammer Forum Hammer Museum Prop 16: Ending the Ban on Affirmative Action Thursday, October 1, 5 PM PST Event URL: https://hammer.ucla.edu//prop-16-ending-ban-affirmative-ac... Should public schools and agencies be allowed to consider race when making decisions about hiring, admissions, and government contracts? Almost a quarter century ago, California voters passed a state constitutional amendment that banned affirmative action by state institutions. This contributed to marked decline in Black and Latinx enrollment at public universities. This election, a measure put on the ballot by the California legislature would repeal the ban. Loyola Law School professor Jessica Levinson moderates a discussion about the likely consequences of this new measure with panelists Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy and UCLA @uclagseis education professor Patricia Gándara. See more

On this 19th anniversary of 9/11, we hold certain fundamental values as sacred to the great promise of our nation. Here is our statement against politically motivated federal censorship of research and training on racial issues. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//statement-against

William Kidder, a research associate with the Civil Rights Project who has studied issues of affirmative action at the University of California for years, recently produced this Fact Sheet and Research Synthesis, "Affirmative Action, Graduation Rates and Enrollment Choice at the University of California." Now that the people of California will be voting on (Proposition 16) the resumption of affirmative action after nearly a quarter century, it is very important to know what the cost of the ban has been in terms of opportunity for Black and Latino students. Says CRP co-director Gary Orfield, "Kidder's Fact Sheet and Research Synthesis shows the damaging consequences and responds to a recent argument by a leading opponent of affirmative action." https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//impact-of-affirma

Attend the webinar and conversation, "School Discipline: What More Is Needed to Close the Gap and Improve School Climate," focusing on research, community leadership and changing how school approach discipline and improve school climate. RSVP link on the image below.

The enormous, and appropriate, celebration of the life of John Lewis has tended to obscure the loss of another preeminent leader of the civil rights movement, Rev. C.T. Vivian. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' new statement recognizes his profound contributions and we join in sadness over his loss and in the recognition of his enduring contributions to racial justice in America. As we watch new leaders and new voices emerge from this year's national movement we need to remember and celebrate the pioneers who took on a comprehensive system of racial subordination in the South and with the strength of their faith, with great courage, and fierce determination, brought us to a better place and created a great example. https://www.usccr.gov//2020-08-21-FMRTCT-Vivian-Statement.

"Because discrimination was still legal [during the New Deal era] when it came to jobs, Black Americans were routinely denied well-paying positions and were much more likely to be hired for low-wage work, according to Orfield, the professor at UCLA." Check out this: How decades of US welfare policies lifted up the white middle class and largely excluded Black Americans" https://www.businessinsider.com/welfare-policy-created-whit

Colleges should act to be sure students can navigate voting barriers in a pandemic year. There could be a similar organized outreach from community groups, churches and others serving young people. https://www.insidehighered.com//colleges-should-help-stude

https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu//civil-rights-proj

Gary Orfield 2h John Lewis. A great man passed over today and he will be honored and remembered like very few who have served in Congress because he represented not an ambitious seeker of power but a very great movement--and he never left it. He embodied it, was a conscience of it, and his life was not about himself but something greater, a faith truly lived. I saw him the summer I graduated from college and was a student intern in Washington. I knew of him because I follo...wed the civil rights movement with great interest from my teens and that hot August day of the March on Washington I was in the crowd by the Lincoln Memorial and I saw him, just 26, a veteran of the movement, sharing the stage with the other great leaders. The civil rights movement burned bright and brilliantly for a few years but was followed by decades of reaction and disappointment when Dr. King's dream of the "beloved community" seemed to have been forgotten in the rush of politics, racial polarization, and money. But he persisted, holding onto the combination of politics of change and Christian activism that had changed the country in those years and always lived in him, a living link between the movement of the l960's and the movement of 2020. A full live, lived with honor, modesty, determination, and vision. I hope that the movement we are living through now will give us women and men who truly follow in his path. See more

We are proud to be included as a place to seek out for facts (yes, facts!) in this resource on "How to Be an Ally for Marginalized Workers" https://theweek.com//921088/how-ally-marginalized-coworkers