Central Los Angeles : Drive Against Affirmative Action Foes Begun

A coalition of South Los Angeles community, religious, business and political leaders announced Friday the organization of a campaign to defeat a proposed ballot initiative outlawing state affirmative action policies.

The South L.A. Affirmative Action Organizing Project launched its effort with a panel discussion at USC that included former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, Reed Tuckson, president of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, and the Rev. James Lawson, pastor of Holman United Methodist Church.

Organizers said the campaign’s strategy includes voter registration, voter education and an effort to bring more people to the polls.

“We decided we cannot sit idly by and watch the hard-won gains of the past two to three decades just wiped out without a response,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas, a coalition organizer.

Backers of the voter initiative aimed at eliminating state affirmative action policies for women and minorities need 693,000 voter signatures to put the proposal on the November, 1996, ballot.