On Monday, December 4, 2006, civil rights activists from across the nation will march and rally at the U.S. Supreme Court when oral arguments are heard in two lawsuits which seek to bar any and all measures that promote racial integration and equal opportunity in American education. The ruling in these cases, Meredith v. Jefferson County Public Schools and Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, will determine whether or not measures to desegregate K-12 public schools, and possibly affirmative action programs for higher education, remain legal.

This is the fight of our lifetime. Everyone who cares about equality and freedom needs to be in DC on December 4th. The Court's ruling in these cases will be based on political, not just legal considerations. This means that we must have a social and political response to affect the outcome of these lawsuits. The Latino/a communities and youth who gave birth to the new civil rights movement in the struggle for immigrant rights last spring showed that when we stand together and fight, we win.

These cases will be remembered as the turning point in our nation's history, when it was decided whether equality and integration would remain on the American agenda, or whether we would return to a period of segregation enforced by law. Put plainly, this Supreme Court will decide whether to stand on its most seminal decision, Brown v. Board of Education, or return to Plessy v. Ferguson's notorious legal fiction of 'separate but equal'. They will also determine whether the Court's 2003 ruling upholding affirmative action programs is upheld.

BAMN, The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary - the organization that spearheaded the 2003 March on Washington to Defend Affirmative Action and Save Brown v. Board of Education - is leading the organizing effort. Student and youth-led mobilization committees have been built in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Seattle, Detroit, and Louisville and are forming throughout the country.