Anthony Chen- "Beyond Disruption: The Forgotten Origins of Affirmative Action in College and University Admissions, 1961-1969"
- When: October 15, 2008, 12–1:30 pm
- Where: Woods Conference Center, 750 N Lake Shore Drive, 4th Floor
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University of Michigan, ABF Visisting Scholar
What explains the rise of affirmative action policies in undergraduate admissions? Most accounts ascribe the initial advent of such policies to the social unrest that engulfed northern cities and campuses during the late-1960s. Examining a new selection of primary sources in which policy change is closely observed, we find mixed support for these “disruption-centered” theories. In a sample of seventeen schools, we observe that affirmative action in undergraduate admissions arose in two, distinct waves during the 1960s. The first wave was launched in the early-1960s by northern schools whose administrators were inspired by nonviolent, civil rights protests in the South. The second wave of affirmative action emerged in the late-1960s as a response to other formsof disruption. A campaign of nonviolent, direct action by black students and their allies,following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., prompted administrators to expandaffirmative action at schools with such programs already in place. A small set of schoolswithout affirmative action finally consented to adopting such programs in the wake ofurban riots and King’s assassination. These late-adopting schools were bastions of socialexclusivity favored by the Protestant upper class. Our findings challenge existingformulations of “disruption-centered” theories and underscore the combined importanceof collective mobilization, elite perceptions, and status-group struggle in understandingpatterns of institutional change in higher education.
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