Wardell Anthony "Ward" Connerly (born June 15, 1939) is an American political and anti-affirmative action activist, businessman, and former University of California Regent (1993–2005).
They moved to Bremerton, Washington and then to Sacramento, California, as part of the Great Migration by millions of blacks out of the South in the first half of the 20th century to seek better opportunities.
While in college, Connerly was student body president, was active as a Young Democrat, and joined Delta Phi Omega, a white fraternity.
During his college years, Connerly campaigned against housing discrimination and helped to get a bill passed by the state legislature banning the practice.
[9] After college, Connerly worked for a number of state agencies and Assembly committees, where he developed a broad range of contacts.
He started his own consulting and land-use planning company, known as Connerly and Associates, Inc., and together with his wife as partner, made a strong success of it.
After his appointment to the University of California board of regents in 1993, Connerly began to learn more about the workings of its affirmative action program.
In 1994, he heard from Jerry and Ellan Cook, whose son had been rejected at the University of California, San Francisco (UC) Medical School.
Connerly proposed abolishing the controversial racially based programs, while allowing the university to consider social or economic factors.
[10] The UC regents developed a new system, including essay requirements that served to reveal the applicant's race and ethnicity.
In 2003, Connerly helped place Proposition 54 on the California ballot, which would prohibit the government from classifying any person by race, ethnicity, color, or national origin, with some exceptions, such as for medical research.
Editorials in newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles Times criticized the measure, saying that the lack of such information would hamper legitimate medical and scientific purposes.
A victory for Proposition 16 would make it legal for the state to give preferences and discriminate based on protected classes like race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.
[20] Connerly says his views on gay rights stem from his libertarian viewpoint that governments, including government-run universities, should not discriminate, whether it is by favoring some students because of their race, or by excluding others from spousal benefits based on their sexual orientation.
[5] The conservative advocacy groups Family Research Council and Traditional Values Coalition criticized Connerly's support for domestic partner benefits.
If you really believe in freedom and limited government, to be intellectually consistent and honest you have to oppose efforts of the majority to impose their will on people.
Eventually, Connerly enlisted the help of several outspoken members of the multiracial movement to assist with the campaign for the Racial Privacy Initiative.
[28] After Connerly published his autobiography, Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences in 2000, some relatives claimed his accounts of an impoverished childhood were exaggerated or false.
[32] Connerly believes affirmative action is a form of racism and that people can achieve success without preferential treatment in college enrollment or in employment.