EJS Staff at NLADA Radical Collaboration for Racial Justice Conference
Motley Fellow Claudia Peña and I have been here in DC all week attending the Radical Collaboration for Racial Justice Conference, sponsored by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA).
Attending this gathering underscores the need for, and importance of, the collaborative work that all of us at EJS do, especially as it relates to our efforts to explicitly tackle racial justice issues, which is clearly not something all offices or attorneys have the privilege of doing so head-on!
The conference was attended predominantly by legal aid attorneys, with a great diversity of ages, ethnicities and geography, which made for really rich discussions. There were some panels and presentations (including one which Claudia sat on, and was fabulous!), but the bulk of the convening time was spent in structured dialogue and working groups, which I really enjoyed.
Calif. Appellate Court Upholds Promoting Diversity in Schools
Yesterday marked an important victory for advocates of school diversity and equal opportunity. A California Court of Appeals ruled that Berkeley Unified School District’s policy of taking neighborhood demographics into account when making school assignments is not discriminatory as alleged by challengers.
The Court concluded that the District’s plan “does not show partiality, prejudice or preference to any student on the basis of that student’s race,” and that “the particular policy challenged here…is not discriminatory.” Therefore, the plan does not violate Proposition 209, California’s anti-affirmative action initiative passed in 1996.
In arriving at its decision, the court invoked the continuing legacy of Brown v. Board of Education, and affirmed the ability of school districts to develop and implement affirmative policies that foster social diversity and inclusion in their schools.
