An all-day diversity fair will be held Saturday, April 19 in honor of the 40th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The student governments of Harris-Stowe State University and Saint Louis University will come together as part of the Diversity Awareness Partnership to host the Dream Keeper’s Fair, running from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and opening with a two-minute moment of silence.

After the tribute there will be a variety of festivities available for participants to take in throughout the day.

Organizers said this fair is also about healing racial rifts in St. Louis. In a statement from the group, they wrote:

Race has been a divisive element within the City of St. Louis. There have been a number of events recently that threaten to keep the City from achieving racial harmony and equality. The Dream Keepers’ Fair aims to encourage people to begin crossing the street — to become more aware of the issues and the intolerance that are present in our communities; to become more willing to listen, learn, and experience; to realize that:

“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality; tied in a single garment of destiny. What ever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” - Dr. King

The partnership was initially developed last year after the two student governments worked together to raise $10,000 for the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project in Washington, D.C.

The group now exists with the “purpose of strengthening the relationship between the two institutions as well as serving as a model for racial reconciliation in the City of St. Louis.”

Members of a coalition to combat an anti-Affirmative Action petition called for voters not to “be fooled in April” by individuals getting signatures for the initiative.

The Working to Empower Community Action Now (WeCAN) coalition held a press conference at the steps of City Hall on Tuesday, April 1st (April Fool’s Day), denouncing a petition being circulated to end Affirmative Action in Missouri.

The initiative is being pushed by anti-Affirmative Action activist Ward Connerly. The west coast-based businessman has pushed successful Affirmative Action ending initiatives in California, Washington state and Michigan. [Watch our earlier interview with Connerly at the end bottom of this page.]

He is now pushing initiatives in five other states, including Missouri. Connerly is in the process of acquiring signatures to get the initiative on the November ballot.

Brandon Davis, WeCAN spokesperson and political director for the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Missouri/Kansas State Council, warned voters about some of the practices backers of the initiative are using. Davis called them “deceptive,” including denouncing the name of the bill dubbed the “Missouri Civil Rights Initiative.”

Davis charges that many people sign the petition without realizing it’s for ending Affirmative Action.

The group took note of it being April Fool’s Day, using a costumed jester and the slogan “Don’t Be Fooled In April.” Connerly’s group has until May 4th to gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

WeCAN released a statement at the conference detailing how petitioners were being paid to gather signatures and were purposely misleading people into thinking they’d signed something that would fight discrimination. University of Missouri-St. Louis student Rita Weinstock said she experienced the tactics first-hand when she was approached by a petitioner in front of City Hall.

“He was describing the petition as simply a ‘petition to end discrimination in hiring,’” Weinstock said.

Weinstock, who knew about the petition and is for Affirmative Action, waved down individuals who had signed the petition and informed them of what it actually meant. She said many went back and asked for their names to be removed.

Deb Cottin, who is a member of the WeCAN coalition through FOCUS St. Louis, said her group signed on to fight the petition because they strongly believe Affirmative Action is still needed.

“It’s going to set back the Civil Rights Movement. It will set back diversity. It does not help diversity,” she said. “It would be nice to think that it would (help diversity), but if you look at what happens in the states that have banned it, it is not good.”

Cottin, Davis and others recited information on how ending Affirmative Action has adversely affected diversity on California college campuses and have hurt Michigan’s chances in getting conventions and other business. Cottin and Davis also wanted to educate more people about Affirmative Action, pointing out that it is not a racial or gender-based “quota” program as quotas are already illegal. WeCAN states that Affirmative Action is based on businesses and organizations who “increase opportunities for women, people of color, people with disabilities, ethnic minorities and veterans. The policies require good faith efforts to achieve and maintain a diverse workforce, business environment or academic community.”

“We really need to sound an alarm,” Cottin said. “If passed it will affect us in horrible ways. If we want St. Louis to thrive, if it gets voted into law it would not bode well for us.”

For those who want more information on WeCAN and their views on the initiative, call 1-877-644-0466 or visit their Web site at www.WeCanMO.org.

Here is our earlier interview with Ward Connerly:

The American Civil Liberties Union is hosting discussion Wednesday on a Affirmative Action banning initiative that is being petitioned to get on Missouri’s November ballot.

California businessman and anti-Affirmative Action Activist Ward Connerly is behind an initiative that would end Affirmative Action in Missouri. He has pushed successful bids to end the civil rights legislation in California, Washington state and Michigan. He is currently pushing initiatives in four other states besides Missouri.

Connerly says Affirmative Action is discriminatory and unneeded. Critics of Connerly argue that Affirmative Action is still necessary due to discriminatory hiring practices and the underrepresentation of minorities on college campuses.

The ACLU describes Connerly’s initiative as being “cloaked in the language of Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement” with a misleading title. The bill is called the “Missouri Civil Rights Initiative” and is touted as a bill to end unfair hiring practices.

(I)t is an attack on affirmative action policies that have benefited women and minorities who would otherwise be locked out of higher education, business contracts, and other public resources … Now, the ACRI (American Civil Rights Initiative) has targeted Missouri, along with Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. Can they be stopped? Does affirmative action still comprise an effective and critical a set of social policies? This session explores both questions and more.

The event is entitled “Affirmative Action: What’s at Stake for Missouri and America” and will feature National ACLU Racial Justice Director, Dennis Parker. It is happening Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the offices of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, 454 Whittier Street, just south of Olive.

RSVPs are encouraged as seating is limited. For more information call 652-3114, ext 23.

As long-time St. Louis activist Percy Green took questions Friday at the World Community Center on his decades of activist experiences, he grinned politely at the prospect of answering one audience member’s question, in particular: his thoughts on the efforts to recall St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay.

“I thought you would never ask,” he laughed.

The occasion of Green’s lecture was a discussion on protesting and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, of which he was a leading voice here in St. Louis. The event was hosted by the Peace Economy Project. After speaking for more than an hour-and-a-half, the final question he took was about the recall effort.

Green used the question as a platform to jump from addressing the legwork for signature-gathering for the recall effort to giving his opinion on the fight between Slay and his African-American constituency.

“Most of us don’t see Chief (Sherman) George and the recall Slay effort as a fight against blacks and City Hall,” Green said. “Others feel like Slay has been a poor manager of the city. Lots of the resources the current administration has used — like the new stadium — we needed a new stadium like a hole in the head. It wasn’t a new stadium. It was a replacement stadium.”

Green said Slay has misused city funds to reward business interest that have not benefited the city as a whole. He cited as the debate over the new Busch Stadium as an example where he believed the taxpayers were manipulated by the “false crisis” of Cardinal management threatening to move the team. Green saw it as a bluff.

“All of that was a game. They weren’t going any place,” Green said. “You don’t want administrators who are going to be gouging taxpayers whether they’re black or not.”

Green also gave his perspective on the firing of embattled Fire Chief Sherman George. While much has been reported of the fight being over hiring practices and race issues, Green, who was also fired by Francis Slay in 2001 from his post as head of the city’s minority business-certification program, said George’s dismissal had everything to do with money.

Green said that as Fire Chief George oversaw the fire code enforcement of downtown buildings, his refusal to approve building which he felt were unsafe rubbed Slay and the mayor’s developer contributors the wrong way. Green charged that Slay wanted George out to ease the path for these business people.

Green called the new chief a “patsy” there to “rubber stamp everything” for Slay and the downtown developers.

“Many people haven’t thought about it,” Green said. “They haven’t seen the connection.”

The Associated Press is reporting that Affirmative Action slayer Ward Connerly survived a prickly, mixed reception at Truman State University Thursday.

He was mocked. He was cheered. And there were a whole lot of chips flying off shoulders.

At one point Connerly had to ask a woman to “please just shut up.”

During his two hour speech he was confronted by a mostly hostile crowed that jeered and interrupted him, even laughing at some of his statements.

”What we’re doing in our nation now … is preparing for the day when race-based affirmative action won’t be around,” he said. ”Clearly, it’s living on borrowed time.”

Connerly was speaking to an audience of several hundred students, professors and community members about Affirmative Action no longer being necessary.

He is in Missouri pushing a ballot initiative that would ban race-based preferences in public hiring and college admissions.

Connerly successfully pushed ballot initiatives banning Affirmative action in California, Washington state and Michigan. He’s now pushing the measure in four other states besides Missouri.

Critics have argued that large inequities still exist between whites and blacks and discrimination remains a pertinent issue.

Connerly acknowledged that eliminating or reducing minority scholarships ”will probably have a negative effect. But that’s a public policy decision that has to be made.”

Civil Rights activist Percy Green will give a rare insight on being an activist for peace, justice and racial equality in the city of St. Louis this Friday so set your calendars for this PEP aka the Peace Economy Project event.

Green will be addressing his 47 years of activism. He is best known for famously climbing the Gateway Arch during its construction to protest the lack of black laborers on the project.

Green rarely makes public appearances, so this is a prime opportunity for those wanting to hear Green’s perspective on Civil Rights in St. Louis.

The event will take place at the World Community Center Friday from 5 to 7 p.m., 438 N Skinker Blvd., St. Louis. A barbecue meal will be served. Admission will cost $5 to $10 (with meal included).

To RSVP call 314-726-6406 or send an e-mail to peop@peaceeconomyproject.org.