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Overview
From his impoverished childhood in segregated pre-war Louisiana to his audience with Bill Clinton at the White House, Ward Connerly's panoramic book spans a civil rights story that's making headlines from coast to coast. Since 1995, when Connerly first burst onto the American scene in as the University of California Regent who forced the nation's largest public university to become color blind in its admissions policies, Connerly has led a national campaign to end race preference. In 1996, he passed Proposition 209 in California, and two years later he led I-200, an identical measure, to victory in Washington state. He is now battling Governor Jeb Bush in Florida as he attempts to put a Florida Civil Rights Initiative on the ballot there. A personal book that gives the inside story of Connerly's battle against race preferences, Creating Equal names names and tells it like it is. It is destined to provoke debate from the dining room table to the halls of Congress. Connerly's encounters with the great and near great ranging from Jesse Jackson and Al Gore to Bill Clinton and Rupert Murdoch illuminate this book that has been praised by many writers such as Shelby Steele.Synopsis
From his impoverished childhood in segregated pre-war Louisiana to his audience with Bill Clinton at the White House, Ward Connerly's panoramic book spans a civil rights story that's making headlines from coast to coast. Since 1995, when Connerly first burst onto the American scene as the University of California Regent who forced the nation's largest public university to become color blind in its admissions policies, Connerly has led a national campaign to end race preference. In 1996, he passed Proposition 209 in California and two years later he led I-200, an identical measure, to victory in Washington state. He is now battling Governor Jeb Bush in Florida as he attempts to put a Florida Civil Rights Initiative on the ballot there. A personal book that gives the inside story of Connerly's battle against race preferences, Creating Equal names names and tells it like it is. It is destined to provoke debate from the dining room table to the halls of Congress. Connerly's encounters with the great and near great ranging from Jesse Jackson and Al Gore to Bill Clinton and Rupert Murdoch illuminate this book that has been praised by writers such as Shelby Steele. Illustrated with family and political photographs.
National Review
Connerly s book is surprisingly good. Most political figures can t produce anything worth reading....But Connerly really did write Creating Equal himself and it is an outstanding combination of autobiography, polemic, and history of the campaign to outlaw racial preferences. It is one of the year s best political books.
Editorials
National Review
Connerly’s book is surprisingly good. Most political figures can‘t produce anything worth reading....But Connerly really did write Creating Equal himself and it is an outstanding combination of autobiography, polemic, and history of the campaign to outlaw racial preferences. It is one of the year’s best political books.Publisher's Weekly
The memoir's apex is its account of his impoverished Southern childhood, his close relationship with his beloved Uncle James and a bewildering meeting with his aged, sick father, who abandoned his family... he stresses individual humanity over group identity....This memoir serves as a restatement of his arguments for the abolition of "a morally incoherent policy that benefits a handful of middle class blacks."Library Journal
Connerly is one of the most maligned public figures in the United States; no one can say he is dishonest, duplicitous, or confused. His integrity fairly shines, and this causes his opponents the utmost discomfiture, for not only is he personally invulnerable, his basic argument is almost unanswerable: that Martin Luther King's dream of judging people by character and not by the color of their skin should be the public policy of the day instead of race-based affirmative action or demeaning quota systems of any kind. As Connerly reads his autobiography, one senses that he has minimized the assaults he has endured. Bitterness is there, but mostly he sticks to his main purpose, to describe how he came to be and to outline the public policy ideas and events in which he has participated for many years. His early foray into California politics is described, particularly his relationship with former governor Pete Wilson and current San Francisco mayor Willie Brown, each of whom influenced him in different ways. As a reader, Connerly is effective; his performance is straightforward and uncomplicated. His voice mirrors his ideas. A vital bit of contemporary history for any public and general academic library. - Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.Internet Bookwatch
Ward Connerly, a University of California Regent, forced the school to become 'color blind' in its admissions policies, promoting both praise and condemnation for his actions. Here he tells of his commitment to racial justice and his family background, from his interracial marriage to his proud back family's struggles. Creating Equal is a fine account of his beliefs and struggles against race preferences.Marc Berley
Connerly is an individual. He is dignified and blunt. He knows what racism is, in all its myriad forms. His fight against prefernces has come against political hardballers both black and white, Democrat and Repuvblican. Creating Equal is not only a compelling account of his struggle and his dream. It's a page-turner. Connerly is a writer - sensitive and graceful, but also witty. He commands the controversial plot and all of its characters. He offers trenchant observations and memorable lines, some of the best about Al Gore and the Bush boys. This book will open many eyes with its thoughtful treatment of the complex problem - past, present, and future - of race in America.—Boston Book Review