More than 100 students participate in a day of silence for affirmative action on the Central Campus Diag Oct. 27, top left. After wearing gags over their mouths all day to represent the loss of minority voices they say would occur if affirmative action is eliminated in the state of Michigan, the students peeled them off just after 5 p.m. and joined in a chorus of, "I support affirmative action," below left.

Riana Anderson, an LSA undergraduate student from Detroit who helped organize the event, told participants to scream loudly so that their fellow students in Angell Hall could hear them. "We have gone unheard for too long," she said. "Affirmative action is an everybody issue." Several campus groups, including Students Supporting Affirmative Action and the NAACP, organized the event titled "Breaking the Silence." (Photos by Lin Jones, U-M Photo Services)

Earlier in the day, members of the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) marched from Crisler Arena to the Diag for the rally, "Stop the Attack on Affirmative Action; Defend Grutter v. Bollinger." "It is hypocritical to mourn Rosa Parks and then make sure her grandchildren can't get an education in the state of Michigan," the Rev. Al Sharpton told about 1,000 faculty, staff and students gathered outside of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library just after noon. Sharpton signed autographs for rally participants, most of them from Detroit high schools, above. Maya Satterwhite, an Oak Park High School junior who was among several students who addressed the crowd, said, "I am a young Black woman and I should not need affirmative action to go to school, but I do." (Photo by Martin Vloet, U-M Photo Services)

The rally was sponsored by Operation King's Dream, BAMN, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary.