101

The State of the Dream 2004: Enduring Disparities in Black and White

College Education, cont.

Moreover, the rollback of affirmative action for African Americans threatens to reverse the positive trends in African-American participation in higher education. During King's time, lawyers across the country were actively filing lawsuits to ensure a more racially inclusive America. Today there is an organized movement of lawyers focused on ending many of the programs that have bridged some of the educational divide resulting from centuries of discrimination. The Wall Street Journal described "conservative legal activists" working to end any scholarships or programs specifically aimed at increasing racial minorities' entry into college. If affirmative action had a strong impact on increasing Black college enrollment, then the recent efforts to end affimative action for Blacks could slow and reverse this progress.

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United for a Fair Economy • Racial Wealth Divide Project 19