African American Students in US Higher Education Over Forty Years
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From Bakke to Fisher: African American Students in U.S. Higher Education over Forty Years w alter r. allen, channel mclewIs, chantal Jones, and danIel harrIs We consider how antiblack legal precedents constrain African American access and success in higher educa- tion. We employ critical race theory to assess status and trends for African American college, graduate, and professional students. Our forty- year analysis traces national patterns of African American student enroll- ment and degree completion at public, four- year institutions. Using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, we find that higher education remains a site of intense racial struggle for African American students. Across institutions we see various trends: the number of African American students at flagships has declined, more students enroll and complete degrees at black-serving institutions, and historically black col- leges and universities are more racially diverse. Keywords: higher education, college access, racism, affirmative action, African American education Black undergraduates are severely underrepre- of higher education. Particularly, we extend the sented at more selective four-y ear institutions. analysis by Walter Allen and his colleagues This situation has mostly remained unchanged, (2005) to examine how higher education enroll- but in many cases markedly declined, with the ment and degree completion among African adoption of anti–affirmative action policies and American students is affected by several court practices (Ashkenas, Park, and Pearce 2017). We decisions. We conclude that antiblack senti- explore how policies and practices since the ments are major drivers of inequality in enroll- 1968 report on the National Advisory Commis- ment and degree completion in higher educa- sion on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commis- tion. sion and thus the Kerner report) have system- Between 1965 and 1972, African American atically created a separate and unequal system college students across the nation confronted Walter R. Allen is Allan Murray Cartter Professor of Higher Education and distinguished professor of education, sociology, and African American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Channel McLewis is a doctoral candidate in higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Chantal Jones is a doctoral candidate in higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles. Daniel Harris is a doctoral candidate in higher education at the University of California, Los Angeles. © 2018 Russell Sage Foundation. Allen, Walter R., Channel McLewis, Chantal Jones, and Daniel Harris. 2018. “From Bakke to Fisher: African American Students in U.S. Higher Education over Forty Years.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 4(6): 41–72. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2018.4.6.03. Acknowledgments: University of California Libraries. Direct correspondence to: Walter R. Allen at [email protected], Moore Hall 3101A- 1, 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095–1521; Channel McLewis at [email protected]; Chantal Jones at [email protected]; and Daniel Harris at [email protected]. Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported Li- cense. 42 fIftIeth ann Iversary of the kerner report racism with organized protest, demanding in- nor safe spaces for African American students stitutional and societal change (Rogers 2012). (Smith et al. 2016). In fact, Daniel Solórzano More than two hundred campuses were rocked and Octavio Villalpando conclude that “higher by a “dramatic explosion of militant activism education reflects the structural and ideologi- [which] set in motion a period of conflict, crack- cal contradictions that exist in the larger soci- down, negotiation, and reform that profoundly ety” (1998, 220). Antiblack racism confronts Af- transformed college life. At stake was the very rican American college students with severe mission of higher education” (Biondi 2012, 1). inequities in enrollment, retention, degree In 1967, the policies and practices of most his- completion, hostile campus climates, unequal torically white institutions (HWI) were implic- resources, and the dismal underrepresentation itly—if not explicitly—committed to the segre- of African American faculty. gation and subjugation of African Americans We use Integrated Postsecondary Education (Allen et al. 2007). At historically black colleges Data System (IPEDS) data to analyze national and universities (HBCUs), African American patterns and trends in African American col- students protested traditional attitudes and lege enrollment and degree completion in pub- conservative politics (Rogers 2012). However, lic higher education, in the twenty states with African American student activism sometimes the largest proportion African American popu- faced violent backlash. For example, in the 1968 lations. We ask the broad question “What is the Orangeburg massacre, police fired on unarmed status and prospects for African American African American college students at South higher education?” and discuss its implica- Carolina State University, killing three and tions. In today’s society, the baccalaureate de- wounding twenty-se ven. Widespread campus gree is more essential for future economic vi- protests linked African American college stu- ability than the high school diploma was dents to civil unrest across the country. during the late 1960s (Snyder, de Brey, and Dil- Whether on campuses or in ghettoes, African low 2018a). We therefore focus on African Amer- American communities rose up to resist racial icans in higher education institutions to ex- oppression, racist attitudes and rampant anti- plore three central questions: How far have we black violence. come? What worked and did not work? What In the fall of 2015, students protested across are the implications for the twenty- first cen- ninety campuses, drawing national attention tury? to the hostile racial climates, ongoing racism, and glaring inequality that many African Amer- teh OretiCal framewOrK ican students attending HWIs experienced The critical race theory (CRT) literature helps (Kelley 2016). Mass and social media captured explain how race, racism, and power shape Af- the Concerned Student 1950 movement at the rican American student trajectories in higher University of Missouri on the national stage. education (Ladson- Billings and Tate 1995). CRT Student activists at other institutions stood in challenges dominant frames that perpetuate solidarity to confront institutional racism and white supremacy, maintains the centrality of antiblackness (Ali 2016). African American col- race and racism as key components of U.S. so- lege student- led protests and social move- ciety, seeks social justice, and recognizes ments resulted in the removal of several cam- higher education as both an oppressive and pus and administrative leaders who failed to empowering space (Solórzano and Yosso 2002). address the deep history of campus racial hos- Emerging from legal frameworks, CRT has in- tility, exclusion, and discrimination (Tatum formed critical higher education research (Har- 2017). ris 2015). Lori Patton Davis discusses higher African American college student activism, education’s deep connections to white suprem- campus unrest, and broader progressive social acy; links higher education to “imperialistic movements, such as the #BlackLivesMatter and capitalistic efforts that fuel the intersec- movement, highlight how higher education tions of race, property, and oppression”; and systematically reproduces society’s racial hier- validates transmission and production of archies. Thus, universities are neither neutral knowledge rooted in white supremacy (2016, rsf: the russell sage foundation journal of the social sciences from bakke to f Isher 43 317). CRT also reveals how larger cultural, po- have lacked the will and commitment to imple- litical, economic, social, and legal factors in- ment enduring systematic change. tersect to create, maintain and explain the stub- born persistence of African American student a friCan ameriCan students in disadvantages in U.S. higher education and in higher eduCatiOn wider society (Bell 2003). Higher education is believed to be “a special, deeply political, almost sacred, civic activity” Antiblackness Framework (Bowen and Bok 1998, xxii). We expect higher Michael Dumas and kihana ross argue “anti- education to produce benefits for society, blackness is not simply racism against Black “through knowledge production, leadership people. Rather antibl ackness refers to a broader development, a literate electorate, and cultural antagonistic relationship between blackness and economic development, to name a few” and (the possibility of) humanity” (2016, 429). possibilities (Kezar, Chambers, and Burkhardt Further, “anti blackness does not signify a mere 2005, xiv). We highlight the importance of racial conflict that might be resolved through higher education for African American people organized political struggle and appeals to the and overview the landscape of African Ameri- state and to the citizenry for redress. Instead, can participation in U.S. public universities. anti blackness marks an irreconcilability be- The pursuit of a college education is influ- tween the Black and any sense of social or cul- enced by the anticipated returns on investment tural regard. The aim of theorizing anti - (Sissoko and