Ward Connerly, The Father of Proposition 209
Ward Connerly was born into the Jim Crow South, Louisiana in 1939, where he was a second class citizen because of the color of his skin. Raised by a grandmother, after his mother died when he was four, Connerly made his way to California and became one of the state’s most consequential figures at the end of the 20th Century.
As a University of California regent who was appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson, Connerly promoted Proposition 209 of 1996, an initiative to end the practice of considering race in college admissions and government contracting and hiring.
Voters approved the measure by a 54.5%-45.4% margin. The electorate affirmed that decision in 2000 by rejecting by a 57.2%-42.7% margin Proposition 16, which was intended to repeal Proposition 209.
In 2023, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the use of affirmative action in higher education, which was already banned by Proposition 209 for public institutions. The Supreme Court’s decision extended that prohibition to private colleges and universities.
Connerly sat down with veteran journalist Dan Morain for an extensive interview as part of the Open California Oral History Project. Presented in three parts below.
This program was made possible by a grant from the California State Library. The interview was conducted in Sacramento on August 15, 2023; it has been edited for clarity and continuity.