APPLAUDING AFFIRMATIVE ACTION--State Rep. Lloyd Lewis, D-Dayton, stands near a plaque honoring Abraham Lincoln, as he applaudes comments by State Sen. Jeffery Johnson, D-Cleveland, at the Ohio Statehouse, in Columbus, Ohio, on Thursday, Nov. 13, 1997. Johnson, pres. of the Legislative Black Cacus, held a news conference in response to a plan for a proposed constitutional amendment that would end the state's race and gender preference programs and others in Ohio municipalities.