As Gov. Jeb Bush delivers his State of
the State speech inside the Capitol, a crowd of some 11,000
rallies against his plan to reshape affirmative action.
By WILLIAM YARDLEY and SHELBY OPPEL
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 8,
2000
TALLAHASSEE -- A raucous
crowd estimated at 11,000 people climbed steep Apalachee Parkway
to the steps of the old state Capitol Tuesday morning and
delivered two clear messages to Gov. Jeb Bush:
"Race and gender
matter" and "We will remember in November."
Beneath a warm sun and a
spotless blue sky, the predominantly black crowd gathered to
protest Bush's One Florida plan to reshape affirmative action.
Many had traveled overnight
on buses, from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando,
Tampa Bay and smaller places in between. Some came from out of
state. Others drove themselves or walked from nearby
neighborhoods.
Just as marchers reached the
oaks that shelter the old Capitol, Bush was rising to a rostrum
inside the towering new Capitol next door to deliver his State of
the State address to open the 2000 Legislature. Bush spoke for 32
minutes before fewer than 160 lawmakers in the House chamber,
promising less government, less taxes and greater diversity.
In his speech, Bush said
he is "doing the right thing" with a plan
that has already increased minority enrollment at Florida State
University by 18 percent over last year without using race as a
factor.
"The plan is
working," Bush insisted. "Fairness and diversity are
achieved without pitting one group against another. There is a new
energy for minority outreach that is unprecedented in state
government."
The governor never mentioned
the crowd outside. Asked about it as he left the House, Bush said
he thinks the protesters someday will realize that One Florida
will help minorities.
"They are here because
somehow they've been told we're taking a step back," he told
reporters. "We are not."
He told legislators the
fierce objections to his One Florida plan have reminded him of the
"public and private price for taking a stand on
principle."
When he proposed One Florida
last fall, many thought his effort was designed to derail
Californian Ward Connerly's much broader initiative that would ban
affirmative action. Unlike Connerly's approach, Bush would replace
race and gender preferences with a system of outreach in
university admissions, hiring and state contracting.
"The vast majority
of Floridians favor the elimination of all affirmative action
programs," Bush said. "It would have been politically
expedient to simply let these programs be dismantled, with nothing
to replace them."
Outside the Capitol, though,
distrust of the Republican governor prevailed among the
protesters.
Local law enforcement
authorities estimated between 9,000 and 11,000 people listened,
chanted and cheered as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, NAACP President
Kweisi Mfume, Martin Luther King III and other national and state
civil-rights leaders spent almost four hours urging them to
continue pressuring Bush until he backs away from One Florida.
"We're going to
shout until the walls of One Florida come on down," Bishop
Victor T. Curry, president of the Miami-Dade County NAACP, shouted
into the microphone as protesters screamed and applauded.
But on
the same day that voters in many other states went to the polls in
the Super Tuesday presidential primaries, Curry and nearly every
speaker made clear the target was broader than One Florida. Their
resentment extended to Bush's educational reforms and to his
entire family, particularly his brother, Texas governor and
Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush.
Jackson derided the Texas
governor for not opposing the flying of the Confederate flag over
the South Carolina state capitol and for not speaking out against
intolerance at conservative Bob Jones University.
"The moral,"
he told the crowd, "is stay out of the Bushes."
Jackson and others repeated
a phrase President Clinton made popular about affirmative action:
"Mend it, don't end it."
Jackson credited the push
for gender equity in college athletics for the victory last year
of the U.S. women's soccer team over China. Affirmative action, he
said, is a "majority issue, not a minority issue," one
that benefits women most.
"Don't let them make
this a black and white issue. That's a trick," he said,
before adding one of his trademark verses: "This is not about
black and white, it's about wrong and right."
The march occurred 35 years
to the day after civil rights marchers in Selma, Ala., were beaten
while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. It grew out of reaction
to an earlier protest that also used tactics from the civil rights
movement.
Miami Sen. Kendrick Meek and
Jacksonville Rep. Tony Hill held a 25-hour sit-in the governor's
offices Jan. 18-19. Bush's angry reaction to the situation helped
galvanize his opponents.
Florida
NAACP President Adora Obi Nweze announced to the crowd that
Capitol police were estimating the crowd had reached nearly
50,000. That's far more than the figure police released.
Told of the police
estimates, Obi Nweze said, "I'm not going to allow anyone to
dampen what happened today."
Tuesday, many marchers waved
signs with bitter messages, including "Jeb Crow"
and "Remember, Jeb and George come from the same
Bush." A small biplane circled several times, towing a
sign: "God Bless Jeb." There were no arrests, though 40
or so people were treated for heat-related illness.
"There ain't much shade
on the parkway," said Tallahassee police spokesman Kevin
Bradshaw.
There was a little more near
the old Capitol, where the crowd crushed petunia beds and leaned
against Civil War memorials.
Young faces were common,
from babies in strollers to college students. With about 90 fellow
seniors from Lincoln High School in Tallahassee, Monique Wright
skipped class for the march.
"As seniors, this
affects us more than anyone," Wright, 17, said as she
pulled the leash of her black cocker spaniel, Taylor, up the hill
to the Capitol.
Wright doubted Bush would
listen to her classmates' chants of "What do we want?
Justice! When do we want it? Now!"
But their voices still were
important to serve as a "wake-up call for black
people," Wright said. "This is just to let (Bush)
know that we are his boss. He is not our boss."
Laborers International local
517, which draws members from Tampa and St. Petersburg, bused in
more than 400 construction and maintenance workers.
"This has really
fired up our membership," said local president Joe
O'Donnell, 51.
A member of the state
university system Board of Regents, Steve Uhlfelder, watched from
a distance. Regents, headed by Tom Petway Bush appointee and
crony, recently voted to adopt part of One Florida that would
replace race-and gender-based admissions with other programs Bush
says will increase diversity.
"People aren't
listening," Uhlfelder said of the crowd. "It's an
emotional issue -- it's hard for people to understand the plan.
There's a lack of trust, but the proof will be in the
outcome."
After the march, at a late
afternoon news conference at the Governor's Mansion, Bush put a
positive spin on the day. "What they want their governor to
be focused on is to make sure we are vigilant in the fight against
discrimination," he said, summarizing his interpretation of
the speeches.
He defended One Florida and
said he received hundreds of supportive phone calls Tuesday.
"A majority of Floridians do support us on this."
The governor's own pollster
came to that conclusion three weeks ago, finding that 51 percent
of those polled approve of One Florida.
Today, Bush will meet with
state NAACP leaders.
Asked about personal attacks
against him, the governor said:
"It doesn't
bother me a bit. I know what I'm doing is right. For the people
who don't believe it's appropriate to implement our strategy -- at
the end, when they see there's more opportunities being given to
African-Americans and Hispanics, little by little, they'll give me
the benefit of the doubt for standing on principle."
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