Expert: Colleges must fight racism Expert: Colleges must fight racism
Witness for U-M says its policy can help heal
January 25, 2001
BY ERIK LORDS FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
America's racial problems will not be solved unless educational institutions and society make an active effort, a celebrated historian said Wednesday during the trial to decide whether the University of Michigan's law school admissions policy is lawful. The nation needs "not only vigilance, but an active effort" to solve lingering problems that stem from racial misunderstanding and hatred, said John Hope Franklin, a professor emeritus of history at Duke University.
We "need to put an end to the racial divide that seems so poisonous," he said. Franklin, who holds honorary degrees from more than 120 universities, served as chairman of President Bill Clinton's Initiative on Race in 1997, and was a key researcher for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall for the 1954 landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., case, which integrated the nation's public schools. Franklin's reputation is so well known that graduate students from local universities and U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., visited the court Wednesday to hear him speak and shake his hand.
Franklin spoke eloquently about racial obstacles he faced growing up in a legally segregated America in the '20s, '30s and '40s. He said some of those problems exist today and used parables punctuated with humor to chronicle his rise to prominence -- from his undergraduate years at historically black Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn., to a doctorate degree from Harvard University. As for his work as chairman of Initiative on Race, Franklin said he regretted that Clinton didn't follow through on one of the group's final recommendations -- forming a permanent, nonpartisan commission to continue grappling with racial issues.
He chaired the commission for 13 months and concluded that "we can't fix in 13 months something that took 300 years" to develop, he said. "But you work at it. Maybe you'll make a dent, maybe you'll turn a corner." Franklin testified on behalf of a group of minority students that has been allowed to intervene in the case. His testimony came on the seventh day of the trial, which will determine whether the law school discriminates against white students to admit less-qualified minority applicants, a claim made in the 1997 lawsuit by plaintiff Barbara Grutter of Plymouth Township. Terry Pell, one of the lawyers representing Grutter, objected to Franklin's testimony, saying it was outside the realm of what the case is trying to decide.
Judge Bernard Friedman overruled the objection Wednesday and overruled a similar objection Tuesday before U-M student Erika Dowdell was called to the stand to describe racism she experienced at U-M. After her testimony, Friedman warned lawyers for the intervenors that he wanted their witnesses to remain within the scope of the issues before the court. The trial will resume Feb. 6 when lawyers for the intervenors are expected to call witnesses to testify about biases in standardized tests.
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