Civil Rights Coalition Launches Second Run of Census Transit System PSAs Targeted at Hard-to-Count Communities

Today, The Leadership Conference Education Fund (The Education Fund) launched a second run of public service announcements in 1,500 buses in eight cities across the country to encourage residents in hard-to-count communities to fully participate in the upcoming 2010 census.

The English-Chinese and English-Spanish PSAs are intended to inform transit users of the benefits of participating in the decennial headcount. The Education Fund and its coalition partners are placing ads in transit systems across the country as part of a national civil rights education campaign to promote a fair and accurate census.

Between February 1 and April 25, the PSAs will appear in buses in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle.  In a ninth city – Phoenix, AZ –The Education Fund has placed PSAs on digital billboards around the city. 

The bus ads focus on the importance of accurate census data to vital services like education, affordable housing, and job creation.  Above is an example of a bus PSA in Detroit, MI.

“Make no mistake – the census is the preeminent civil rights issue of 2010, with major implications for the next decade,” said Wade Henderson, president of The Education Fund.  “An accurate census will directly affect our nation’s ability to ensure equal representation and equal access to important government resources for all, and we encourage all communities to stand up and be counted by filling out and returning their census questionnaires.”

The ten-question census forms will be mailed to households nationwide in mid-March. 

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The Education Fund’s census campaign is a collaborative of national and regional civil rights groups, including the Asian American Justice Center (AAJC), the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), and the NAACP.