As protestors gathered in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on a recent December morning waving signs that called for the preservation of affirmative action, Breana Ross took to the podium and gave an impassioned speech.
“We are in a state of emergency,” Ross bellowed at the marchers that braved the frigid cold to participate in a rally organized by Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network. “We are six decades after Brown v. Board [and] students of color and, disproportionately, Black and Brown students, still have limited access to colleges and universities.”
The crowd went wild. There was applause and then cheers.
The spotlight was on Ross, vice president of the United States Student Association (USSA) — the country’s oldest student-led movement with a membership of 1.5 million.
Fighting for issues like affirmative action and college access has been a part of her lifelong mission. But it wasn’t always that way.
Ross says that she first was politicized during her days as a college student at the University of California, Riverside. She graduated last year.
Back then she was a business major. But Ross made a radical switch to political science after she took an ethnic studies course and was challenged by a professor to become more involved in social justice issues both on and off campus.
