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Race-conscious affirmative action policies in higher education have existed since the early 1960s. For more than two decades, these policies have been under assault for their perceived illegality and inequity. Proponents and critics have sparked many debates surrounding the issues of affirmative action policies. These debates inspired numerous court cases claiming reverse discrimination. As a result, some states have eliminated affirmative action admission policies in higher education.
History
Since its beginning, the affirmative action policies' objective has been to provide opportunities for minorities to advance in society. These policies, mostly race-sensitive, have since opened many doors for minorities especially in higher education. Currently, affirmative action policies are under fire and some have been retracted because of perceived partiality toward minorities and women. Over the years, many court cases have inquired into the legality of affirmative action.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) monumentally changed educational opportunities available to minority students. The Court unanimously voted that segregated educational facilities were unequal and, therefore, violated the equal protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. The Court mandated desegregation of all public schools in the country. It overturned the previous decision in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), which permitted "separate but equal" public facilities for minorities and pushed policymakers to examine other principles governing education for people of color.
The civil rights movement and President Lyndon B. Johnson's War on Poverty in the mid-1960s launched a movement for the nation to respond by offering equal access to education, housing, and other resources (Alger et al., 2000). In June 1965, President Johnson spoke at Howard University (DC), outlining the major principles behind affirmative action.
He stated:
"You do not take a man who for years has been hobbled by chains, liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race, saying, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe you have been completely fair... This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity-not legal equity hut human ability-not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result" (ECS, 1).
President Johnson reinforced his speech...