The Leadership Conference Announces Endorsement of UAFA

By Steve Ralls on 12/08/2010 @ 06:24 PM

Tags: Allies, UAFA

Earlier today, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — the nation's premiere civil and human rights coalition — offered its endorsement of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA). The Leadership Conference is one of the country's most influential voices on civil rights issues, and represents more than 200 national organizations — including the Immigration Equality Action Fund — dedicated to advancing civil and human rights issues at the federal level.

The Leadership Conference was founded in 1950 and has coordinated national lobbying efforts on behalf of every major civil rights law since 1957. It is committed to working toward "the goal of a more open and just society — an America as good as its ideals."

The organization's endorsement of UAFA is significant, and puts the group on-record, with Congressional lawmakers, in support of the legislation. In announcing its endorsement, the coalition's leaders specifically applauded the Immigration Equality Action Fund's policy team for educating member organizations on the critical need to support UAFA.

As the group's website notes, "The Leadership Conference was founded in 1950 by A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins of the NAACP; and Arnold Aronson, a leader of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council. Their visionary leadership was grounded in their commitment to social justice and the firm conviction that the struggle for civil rights would be won ... through coalition [strategies]."

The group's track record is historic and unmistakable. It has:

• pushed for and won the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which reversed a number of Supreme Court decisions that had weakened the original Civil Rights Act of 1964;
• pushed for and won the passage of the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits gender discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal funding; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in federally assisted programs; and The Age Discrimination Act of 1975, which prohibits discrimination based on age in programs or activities that receive federal funds;
• pushed for and won the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968; and
• pushed for and won the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957, the first federal civil rights law since Reconstruction.

All of us at Immigration Equality and the Immigration Equality Action Fund are proud to welcome The Leadership Conference to the growing coalition standing with us, on Capitol Hill and around the country, in support of UAFA.