Ward Connerly formally announced the creation of a new, national civil rights organization, the American Civil Rights Institute on January 15th, 1997. Connerly served as chairman of the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209) campaign. Connerly has gained national respect as an outspoken advocate of equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of race or sex. Connerly's views on preferences, set-asides and quotas have been well documented by the international, national and California press.
As a member of the University of California Board of Regents, Connerly focused the attention of the nation on the University's race-based system of preferences in its admissions policy. On July 20, 1995, following Connerly's lead, a majority of the Regents voted to end the University's use of race as a means for admissions. Connerly has served on the Board of Regents since 1993.
For months, Connerly resisted invitations from the California Civil Rights Initiative authors, Glynn Custred and Tom Woods, to join the campaign as chair. Ultimately, he accepted their invitation in December 1995 when he decided the campaign was in jeopardy without his support. Under his leadership, the campaign successfully obtained more than 1 million signatures and qualified for the November 1996 ballot.
On election day, California voters supported Proposition 209 by a vote
of 54% to 46%. Now Connerly wants to take 209 national. His Smith Center
speech, "Ending Racial and Gender Preferences: The Road from California"
was delivered on June 5, 1997 at the San Ramon Marriott Hotel. The event
was cosponsored by Pacific
Research Institute.