Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/105

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)

57

Thomas, J., concurring

M. Hammond, L. Owens, & B. Gulko, Social Mobility Outcomes for HBCU Alumni, United Negro College Fund 4 (2021) (Hammond), https://cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/uploads/Social-Mobility-Report-FINAL.pdf; see also 87 Fed. Reg. 57567 (placing the percentage of black doctors even higher, at 70%). In fact, Xavier University, an HBCU with only a small percentage of white students, has had better success at helping its low-income students move into the middle class than Harvard has. See Hammond 14; see also Brief for Oklahoma et al. as Amici Curiae 18. And, each of the top 10 HBCUs have a success rate above the national average. Hammond 14.^[1]

Why, then, would this Court need to allow other universities to racially discriminate? Not for the betterment of those black students, it would seem. The hard work of HBCUs and their students demonstrate that “black schools can function as the center and symbol of black communities, and provide examples of independent black leadership, success, and achievement.” Jenkins, 515 U. S., at 122

↑ Such black achievement in “racially isolated” environments is neither new nor isolated to higher education. See T. Sowell, Education: Assumptions Versus History 7–38 (1986). As I have previously observed, in the years preceding Brown, the “most prominent example of an exemplary black school was Dunbar High School,” America’s first public high school for black students. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, 551 U. S. 701, 763 (2007) (concurring opinion). Known for its academics, the school attracted black students from across the Washington, D. C., area. “[I]n the period 1918–1923, Dunbar graduates earned fifteen degrees from Ivy League colleges, and ten degrees from Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan.” Sowell, Education: Assumptions Versus History, at 29. Dunbar produced the first black General in the U. S. Army, the first black Federal Court Judge, and the first black Presidential Cabinet member. A. Stewart, First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar 2 (2013). Indeed, efforts towards racial integration ultimately precipitated the school’s decline. When the D. C. schools moved to a neighborhood-based admissions model, Dunbar was no longer able to maintain its prior admissions policies—and “[m]ore than 80 years of quality education came to an abrupt end.” T. Sowell, Wealth, Poverty and Politics 194 (2016).

[1] Such black achievement in “racially isolated” environments is neither new nor isolated to higher education. See T. Sowell, Education: Assumptions Versus History 7–38 (1986). As I have previously observed, in the years preceding Brown, the “most prominent example of an exemplary black school was Dunbar High School,” America’s first public high school for black students. Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, 551 U. S. 701, 763 (2007) (concurring opinion). Known for its academics, the school attracted black students from across the Washington, D. C., area. “[I]n the period 1918–1923, Dunbar graduates earned fifteen degrees from Ivy League colleges, and ten degrees from Amherst, Williams, and Wesleyan.” Sowell, Education: Assumptions Versus History, at 29. Dunbar produced the first black General in the U. S. Army, the first black Federal Court Judge, and the first black Presidential Cabinet member. A. Stewart, First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar 2 (2013). Indeed, efforts towards racial integration ultimately precipitated the school’s decline. When the D. C. schools moved to a neighborhood-based admissions model, Dunbar was no longer able to maintain its prior admissions policies—and “[m]ore than 80 years of quality education came to an abrupt end.” T. Sowell, Wealth, Poverty and Politics 194 (2016).

[1]