The complicated and controversial history of affirmative action in America

Race-based affirmative action: an ambiguous yet politically charged term for a public policy that has been a perennial point of contention in American society. Average Americans and Supreme Court Justices alike have grappled with affirmative action for decades. In general terms, affirmative action policies aim to promote the education and employment of members of groups that are known to have previously suffered from discrimination. While supporters argue that affirmative action is necessary to ensure racial diversity as well as equality of opportunity, critics state that it creates unfair disadvantages based on things people cannot control, and should be treated as discrimination.

The original intent of affirmative action policies was to force institutions into compliance with the nondiscrimination mandate of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The concept was first codified in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy issued an executive order using affirmative action as a way to combat racial discrimination in employment. The order instructed federal employers to take “affirmative action to ensure that applicants are treated equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” This order was superseded in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed an executive order affirming the Federal Government’s commitment “to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive, continuing program in each executive department and agency.”

In 1995, President Bill Clinton reviewed all affirmative action guidelines by Federal agencies and declared his support for affirmative action programs, announcing his Administration’s policy to “Mend it, don’t end it.” President Obama notably called on universities to consider race as a factor to diversify their campuses, while President Trump nearly immediately reversed these policies after entering office and launched a Department of Justice investigation into certain universities spearheaded by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Beyond the executive branch, affirmative action policies have been questioned in court since they became prominent. Famously, in 1978, a white student challenged The University of California Medical School after being denied, arguing that race-based admissions contributed to his rejection as he was more statistically qualified than minority students who were accepted that year. The U.S. Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke upheld the use of race as one factor in choosing among qualified applicants for admission. However, the ruling outlawed the school’s use of race based quotas. Before the lawsuit, the medical school saved 18 out of the 100 seats in each entering class for minority students.

No example better displays the split attitude towards affirmative action in America than Michigan’s battle with the policy. In 2000, a Michigan Federal Court ruled that the University of Michigan’s factoring of race into the admissions process was constitutional in Gratz v. Bollinger, and just a year later, another Michigan judged ruled in Grutter v. Bollinger that the University of Michigan Law School’s similar admissions policy was unconstitutional. In 2002, a Federal Appellate Court reversed the decision.

Some states such as California, Michigan, and Washington have left the decision of whether or not to end affirmative action up to the electorate, and passed constitutional amendments banning public institutions, including public schools, from practicing affirmative action within their respective states. A 2014 Pew Research Center poll found that 63% of Americans thought affirmative action programs aimed at increasing minority representation on college campuses were “a good thing” compared to 30% who thought they were “a bad thing.” Overall, 58% supported race-based affirmative action.