December 5-7, 1997

The Latino Civil Rights Crisis

PURPOSE

On December 3rd in Los Angeles and December 5th in Washington DC, 1997, The Civil Rights Project and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute held a conference on the Latino Civil Rights Crisis. The conference featured important new research on a variety of civil rights policy changes which have the potential of severely curtailing the civil rights of Latinos in areas ranging from college admissions and aid, voting rights, and rights of legal immigrants to policies limiting bilingual education and school desegregation. We believe that these policies add up to a sweeping reversal in the situation of the communities which will soon comprise the nation’s largest minority group. Each is important in itself. The comprehensive and interactive effect of these policies, particularly in the two states that are home to three-fifths of Latinos--California and Texas, make it very important to consider them together.

A number of the nation’s leading scholars and advocates participated in the exploration of these changes, putting aside other work to concentrate on these issues. The new papers which were presented first in Los Angeles and then in Washington, focused on national policy implications. It was an intensive conference with authors presenting brief summaries of papers, commentators raising important issues, and other participants, including several leading scholars, policymakers, civil rights leaders, and litigators, stimulating informative discussion. From this conference, we will publish a book of papers that will help to create broader awareness of the current crisis and potential solutions.

# # #

AGENDA: TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

I. Introductions

Gary Orfield, Christopher Edley, Jr., and Rodolfo de la Garza

II. Have Latino Civil Rights Been Enforced: Are Civil Rights Conditions Deteriorating?

Civil Rights Record
Georgina Verdugo, Mexican American Legal Defense Fund
Charles Kamasaki, National Council of La Raza

III. Is The Door to Higher Education Closing?

College Access Reversal in Texas
Jorge Chapa, University of Texas at Austin

California Higher Education Impacts
Gary Orfield for Harry Pachon, Tomas Rivera Policy Institute

IV. Merit, Tests, Equity and Opportunity for Latinos

Implications of Increasing Reliance on Standardized Tests
Richard Valencia, University of Texas, Austin

V. Elementary and Secondary Civil Rights: Accepting Resegregation and Ending Bilingual Programs?

Bilingual Education
Kenji Hatuka, Stanford University

School Resegregation
Gary Orfield, Harvard University

VI. Shrinking Rights of Resident Aliens

Alex Aleinkoff, Georgetown Law Center

VII. Politics, Demographics and Civil Rights

Wedge Issues and Polarization
Karin MacDonald, UC Berkeley

Immigration Voter Participation and Mobilization
Louis DeSipio, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Rodolfo de la Garza, uno

VII. Will Washington Be Responsive?

Maria Echaveste, Assistant to the President, The White House
Charles Kamasaki, National Council of La Raza

VIII. Closing: Nature of Crisis and Next Steps

Rodolfo de la Garza, Gary Orfield, and Christopher Edley, Jr.