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Federal Suit Filed to
Stop the Anti-Affirmative Action Ballot

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PRESS CONFERENCES - THURSDAY, JUNE 22, 2006

Detroit: 10AM at the Federal Court Building
(Fort and Shelby in downtown Detroit)

Lansing: 1PM on the East steps of the Capitol Building

Grand Rapids: 4PM at the Schools Administration Building
(1331 Franklin St., SE) 
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For Immediate Release

On Thursday, June 22, Operation King's Dream, the Macomb County
branch of the NAACP and numerous black and Latino voters will
file suit against Ward Connerly and Michigan election officials
in United States District Court seeking an injunction to stop
the so-called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative from going on the
November ballot. The lawsuit charges that Connerly, Jennifer
Gratz, MCRI, the Michigan Secretary of State, and the State
Board of Canvassers violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of 125,000 black Michigan
voters who were deceived into signing the MCRI's petition by
means of fraud.

The lawsuit is based in part on the report and the 1000 pages of
testimony released by the Michigan Civil Rights Commission last
week. The Commission conducted a six-month investigation and
held four hearings across the state. It concluded that the
"MCRI's efforts to change the Constitution of the state of
Michigan rest on a foundation of fraud...."

Shanta Driver, national spokesperson for Operation King's Dream
said: "Its time for the elected officials and the courts to
break the conspiracy of silence. After the Civil Rights
Commission's report, no one can pretend that they do not know
the massive nature of the fraud that the MCRI has perpetrated.
We have learned that in his campaign to ban affirmative action
in Washington State, Ward Connerly and his organization used the
same tactics of deception in majority black Seattle
neighborhoods almost ten years ago. This long history of fraud
and deception comes to an end here in Michigan."

Driver also said that "This voting rights suit joins a host of
challenges to racially-targeted fraud in ballot petitions,
including a case that will be heard by the 9th Circuit Court on
Thursday, in which racially-targeted fraud was used to gain the
signatures of Latino/as in a recall election in San Diego."

George Washington, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said
"MCRI's attempt to get on the ballot by racially-targeted voter
fraud is a direct violation of the Voting Rights Act. It is like
the white primaries and other discriminatory schemes that the
Voting Rights Act was passed to eliminate."

Among individual named plaintiffs is Ruthie Stevenson, the
president of the Macomb County NAACP who has fought for more
than a year for official action to stop the voter fraud from
tainting the Michigan ballot.

The MCRI's attempt to amend the state constitution and nullify
the decision of the United States Supreme Court on the basis of
this fraud is a provocation against the black communities of
Michigan. There is growing public outrage. The integrity of the
election is at stake. MCRI must not go on the November ballot."
said Luke Massie spokesperson for Operation King's Dream.


For more information, contact:
BAMN/Operation King's Dream 313-438-3748

(Operation King's Dream is the ballot committee of BAMN)