On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to end affirmative action for college admissions, stating that considering race as a factor was unconstitutional, while preserving ‘legacy’ admissions which often allow students of alumni entrance to prestigious institutions. Yet from the establishment of the first university in the United States, race has been a consistent organizing principle in American higher education. In this episode, we sit down with UCLA historian Eddie Cole to discuss how the origins of affirmative action in the 1960s aimed to rectify a legacy of systemic racism in the United States. In later decades, the discourse around affirmative action shifted from restitution and reparation to admissions and diversity more broadly. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action, what are the repercussions for Black students? And how will the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action affect the generations to come? Should the conversation shift from the need for diversity to a renewed call for reparations?
Dr. Eddie R. Cole is Associate Professor of Education and History at UCLA. Dr. Cole’s research explores leadership, race, and social movements through the prism of higher education, addressing power and systems of power as well as education’s impact on society. His award-winning book, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom was published by Princeton University Press in 2020.