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| OPENING DOORS, OPENING MINDS October 10, 1997 |
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Questions answered in this forum:How can positive relations be established? What does the increasing segregation of schools mean for future race relations? Is school the critical place where ideas about race are formed? Do you think continued efforts to desegregate schools will further better economic success?
NewsHour Coverage
August 18, 1997:
Does California's ban on affirmative action hurt diversity?July 3, 1997:
Online Forum: Ask the President's advisory panel about the national initiative.February 18, 1997:
In 1960, 6-year-old Ruby Bridges Hall became the first African American child to desegregate an elementary school.Browse the Online NewsHour's coverage of race relations.
Outside Links
Central High SchoolA question from Allen Rein of Atlanta, GA:
What role do all black institutions (K-12 and colleges) have in allowing blacks to succeed and flourish in the business world?
William Winter, former Governor of Mississippi responds:
Black educational institutions continue to play an important part in the education of many black students, particularly those who tend to feel isolated in a minority role in predominantly white institutions, There is frequently a greater range of opportunities for black students to participate in student activities in black schools and thus to more fully develop their social and leadership skills. Moreover with the emerging number of successful black business enterprises owned and operated by alumni of black colleges and universities, there now exists an enlarged network of prospective employers for the graduates of those institutions.
Ultimately, however, it is to be hoped that single-race educational institutions will all recognize the importance of a measure of racial diversity among their students as a valuable element in preparing them to live in an increasingly multicultural society.
Christopher Edley, Law Professor at Harvard responds:
My father was president of the United Negro College Fund for 18 years, so I understand fully the important contribution of historically minority-serving institutions. They are a critical resource in two respects.
First, they serve a remedial purpose by educating promising students who are too often ignored by traditionally "white" institutions, and they often do a far better job of providing a quality academic experience for those students. This is "remedial" in the sense that the minority-serving institutions are remedying the shortcomings of the white schools. Second, these schools are important cultural resources, in much the same way that black churches or fraternal organizations are. They are a major base for scholarship on issues of concern to minorities, for the arts, and for preparing leaders within minority communities.
It is often said that a great strength of American higher education is the extraordinary diversity of institutions, unparalleled in any other country: large and small, public and private, selective and open, co-ed and same-sex, liberal arts and specialized. Yeshiva and Brandeis, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke – these are jewels. So are Howard, Fisk, and Spellman. They offer something special, but that choice comes with sacrifices. Women at Wellesley lose, for a time, the interaction with the men with whom they will compete and collaborate in the workplace. We recognize, however, that the special accomplishments and role of Wellesley are worth preserving. So, too, for minority-serving institutions.
They key is to stay aware of what we may give up if this separateness becomes not just one among many options, but instead the only option -- a limitation on opportunity, not an enhancement of it. And, in K-12, I don't want to surrender the hope that children, at the precious ages when their sense of identity is malleable, will benefit from developing that crucial sense of connection with children who are different from themselves. They need it. We all do.
Questions answered in this forum:
How can positive relations be established? What does the increasing segregation of schools mean for future race relations? Is school the critical place where ideas about race are formed? Do you think continued efforts to desegregate schools will further better economic success?
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