Summary
First to benefit from the affirmative action programs talk about it 25 years later - Black Enterprise 25th Anniversary: Saluting the Past, Shaping the Future - Cover Story - Interview
School integration, Civil Rights Act of 1965 and affirmative action programs fueled the careers of these 25 people who took advantage of these dramatic changes influencing the condition of African Americans. Interviewed 25 years after entering college. they discuss the impact on their lives and careers.See the full content of this document
Extract
Moment of truth for the class of '70.
Affirmative action opened the doors and they were the first to plow through -- ambitious, determined and prepare. Twenty-five years later, they're achieved the Dream. But can they secure it for their children?
THEY WERE BORN IN THE LATE 1940s, INTO A world divided by color--black and white. Given their timing and their race, the white world offered them little and expected even less. But all that quickly changed. Just as they entered grade school, a victory in Brown vs. the Board of Education altered the nation's educational landscape. By the time they were seniors in high school, colleges that had been completely shuttered to their parents were not only considering them, they were recruiting them. By then, the Civil Rights Act of 1965 had been passed, and the government was putting pressure on white institutions to either admit black applicants or lose federal funding. The incentive opened doors, first at the undergraduate level, then at the graduate level and, ultimately, at the professional level. Blessed with ambition, determination and strong families who instilled in them the value of education, the 11 women and 14 men interviewed for this article became first-line beneficiaries of a new program dubbed affirmative action. AFROS, PANTHERS AND PROGRESS Meet the BE Class of '70: Twenty-five members of the generations that led campus sit-ins, take-overs and marches; that joined the Alphas, Deltas, Panthers and SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee); that embraced Black Power and rejected the Vietnam War. Whether they took center stage, observe from the sidelines, or waged a self-contained battle in the classroom, this group--with very few exceptions--shared a revolutionary state of mind. It apparently served them well. Today, they are middle-aged (45 to 50); most are married (only four have been divorced); and all but four have children, many of whom are now college age. In many ways they are classically middle-to-upper class--agonizing over their older children's educationa...See the full content of this document
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