March 17, 2000

Thousands Protest Florida Plan on Racial Preferences in Admissions

Jesse Jackson leads 11,000 to Tallahassee as marchers vow to retaliate against both Bush brothers

By JEFFREY SELINGO

Some 11,000 protesters marched on Florida's Capitol last week in opposition to Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to end racial preferences in university admissions.

But with the proposal basically a done deal, protesters used the event partly to hang the governor's plan around the neck of his brother, Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, the likely Republican nominee for the White House.

Led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other national civil-rights activists, the protest was by far the largest