The Department of Education has been asked by Lawyers for Civil Rights to examine Harvard University’s use of legacy in admissions. Finally, a lawsuit to challenge legacy preferences in admissions!
Who’s Your Daddy?
In the United States, higher education was established to educate elite White men. The Morrill Act of 1962 would extend the opportunity to receive higher education to less affluent men through land grant universities, but many of these institutions did not admit Black men. The Morrill Act of 1890 would establish historically black land grant institutions to educate Black men – not women. Harvard’s first Black male undergraduate, Richard Theodore Greener, graduated in 1870. The first Black undergraduate students enrolled at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1955. This picture shows the students, but not a caption with their names [Sigh].
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, the first public university, founded in 1789, took over 234 years to enroll a Black student, and Harvard University, the oldest university founded in 1636, took over 229 years. So, for nearly 12 generations, before Black men were allowed to attend these institutions, white men were bestowing the advantage of “legacy” to their male children.
All The Women Were White
The creation of women’s colleges was a farce as they did not admit Black women, so it was really “white” women’s colleges. Founded in 1836, Wesleyan College, the first woman’s college in the world, in Macon, Georgia, did not allow Black women to attend until 1965. Still, it was in 1968 that Black women were admitted and matriculated – The First Five. The Seven Sister Schools did not admit Black women in meaningful numbers, until later.
A Proxy for Race
For institutions with a history of restricted admissions based on race or ethnicity, legacy is a proxy for white. But legacy is not the only proxy for race. Preference in admissions for unique talents (artists, musicians, etc.) and athletes may also serve as a proxy for race or privilege, depending on the barriers to acquiring the special talent or participating in the sport.
While I am elated to see the challenge to preferences given to legacy students, I would prefer to see a challenge to all preferences in admissions. Then as Biden said, we will see how “practices like legacy admissions and other systems expand privilege instead of opportunity.”
