This page contains a chronological record of major news items related to Affirmative Action. The news section is subdivided by year: 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006. Please e-mail your suggestions.
This page was last revised August 3, 2006. (AAD Home Page)
A Chronological Record of News and Events Related to Affirmative Action
News and Announcements: 1999
December 16, 1999: Some African American lawmakers are against a lawsuit challenging the state's equal opportunity laws. The state's Black Caucus says it will intervene in the suit filed by two construction firms alleging an Oklahoma program giving minorities preference on state contracts is discriminatory. State Representative Don Ross says he considers the lawsuit part of a national attack on affirmative action programs. The case is pending in federal court in Oklahoma City. (ABC NewsWire)
December 16, 1999: The Boston Police Department will end its 19-year practice of promoting minority members over white officers who have higher civil service test scores. The Boston Globe reports that Police Commissioner Paul Evans says he will also immediately promote 31 white officers who were skipped over for promotion three years ago in order to meet affirmative action goals. The new policy, in response to a ruling by Suffolk Superior Court Judge John Xifaras, ends the current practice of basing promotions on race, but Evans says he still intends to use race as a tie-breaker between officers with the same test scores.
December 8, 1999: Issues of race and racism are swirling at the University of California at Berkeley, stirred up by the imminent departures of two Hispanic professors and protests over the future of the ethnic studies department.
December 7, 1999: African-American members of Congress urged President Clinton on Monday to make race relations a central part of his State of the Union speech early next year.
December 5, 1999: Promising an administration that would ``set a tone in the air'' promoting racial unity, Democrat Bill Bradley preached a message of racial progress Sunday during services at a Baptist church in eastern Iowa.
November 24, 1999: Florida's attorney general has asked the state Supreme Court to stop a bid by California businessman Ward Connerly to stamp out affirmative action in Florida, aides said on Wednesday.
November 22, 1999: Black lawmakers from around the state have organized a petition campaign to fight against Governor Jeb Bush's "One Florida" plan. They are upset with the Board of Regents for voting to end affirmative action at state universities. Under the policy, state schools will NOT be allowed to give minority applicants special consideration. The group is hoping to collect thousands of signatures.
November 22, 1999: Jacksonville Congresswoman Corinne Brown says the Board of Regents did NOT consider all the ramifications when it voted to end affirmative action at state universities. She says, by approving Governor Jeb Bush's "One Florida" plan, it may have jeopardized Millions of dollars in education funding from the federal government. She has asked the Department of Education to look into it.
November 21, 1999: Here is the text of the Florida Equal Opportunity Initiative, the pro-affirmative action drive sponsored by the NAACP and other groups in opposition to Ward Connerly's effort to dismantle affirmative action in Florida. They hope to get it on the 2000 ballot:
''The state shall not discriminate against any person on the basis of sex, race, ethnicity, color or national origin in public employment, public education, or public contracting. It shall not constitute discrimination for the state to take affirmative action to promote equal opportunity to the extent permissible under the United States Constitution as long as it does not employ a numerical quota.''
November, 21, 1999: Taking aim at both anti-affirmative action activist
Ward Connerly and Gov. Jeb Bush, supporters of affirmative action huddled Saturday
in a caucus timed to coincide with the annual rivalry on the gridiron between
Florida's
historically black schools. Click
here for Miami Herald news story.
November 19, 1999: Returning home to find himself embroiled in the most explosive controversy since he took office, Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday lashed out at the critics of his plan to end racial preference laws in Florida. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
November 17, 1999:After a week of intense pressure by fellow black legislators,
state Sen. Daryl Jones Tuesday did an about-face and blasted Republican Gov.
Jeb Bush's new voluntary racial-diversity plan -- in an attempt to stave off
a coup to
oust him as chairman of the Legislature's black caucus. Click
here for Miami Herald news story.
November 16, 1999: After hours of debate and protests from students and black leaders Friday, Florida's Board of Regents endorsed Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to end affirmative action in admissions at the state's 10 public universities.
November 16, 1999: Black politicians said Monday they are outraged by Gov. Jeb Bush's order to end affirmative action and minority set-asides, and urged minority voters to strike back at the polls. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
November 12, 1999: A black businessman who led efforts to end affirmative action in California said he will continue pushing for a constitutional amendment in Florida despite Gov. Jeb Bush's move to end racial quotas in state programs.
November 12, 1999: Higher education officials say the most promising element of Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to eliminate race in state university admissions is his head-on attack on the ``pipeline problem'' -- the fact that too few minority students are in the academic circuits that lead to college. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
November 11, 1999: Applauding Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to stop setting aside state contracts for minorities and women, the Broward County Republican Party on Wednesday urged the county to review its affirmative action policies. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
November 10, 1999: Gov. Jeb Bush has signed an order that eliminates race and ethnicity as factors in university admissions and bars racial set-asides and quotas in contracting decisions - essentially ending affirmative action in state programs.
November 9, 1999: Florida Gov. Jeb Bush launched an initiative on Tuesday to abolish many racial preferences in awarding contracts and university admissions in the state, but he did not endorse a bid to completely eliminate affirmative action.
November 8, 1999: A poll by The Herald and The St. Petersburg Times shows that Florida voters, by a margin of more than two to one, would ban public race and gender preferences. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
November 4, 1999: Affirmative Action foes are awaiting the latest executive order from Florida Governor Jeb Bush. Bush is expected to sign an order banning racial preferences or quotas in state employment, contracting and higher education. The latest move by the governor could force organizers of the Florida Civil Rights Initiative to obtain additional signatures to put an anti-affirmative action referendum on the 2000 ballot. Bush says the executive order could come in a matter of weeks.
November 4, 1999: A new survey has found that more women and minorities are earning Ph.D.s than ever before, though some said key fields - from business to engineering - are still lacking.
October 17, 1999: President Clinton, in a speech delivered to an Italian American group, says that diversity is the curcial issue facing America in the next century. Click here for AP news story.
October 6, 1999: The Supreme Court heard arguments today on who should be considered a native Hawaiian. A man descended from whites who settled in Hawaii five generations ago is suing to be allowed to vote on the distribution of a fund of money set aside for descendants of aboriginal peoples. He says he is a victim of racial discrimination. The government counters that the fund is intended to acknowledge the unjust taking of Hawaiian land from native inhabitants 100 years ago. The outcome of the case could have a bearing on special arrangements for American Indians and Alaska natives. Click here for NPR news story. NOTE: You must have the Real Player to listen to this report.
October 5, 1999: Two Coral Gables firms that are challenging the county's affirmative action program for minority architects and engineers have failed to convince a federal judge that the program should be halted immediately. Click here for Miami Herald News Story.
October 4, 1999: The Supreme Court would be found guilty of discrimination
if it were a private company, the
president of the NAACP said Monday as he and others representing minorities
and women's groups urged greater diversity in the justices' hiring of law clerks.
October 3, 1999: A pending case in Hawaii could have repercussions for native peoples all over the United States.
September 18, 1999: An attorney for two engineering firms challenging Miami-Dade County's affirmative action program for design contracts urged a federal judge on Friday to end the policy. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
September 17, 1999: With the goal of producing "a new generation of leaders," Bill and Melinda Gates are giving $1 billion to fund scholarships for minority college students. The donation is in response to anti-affirmative action measures such as Washington State's Initiative 200. Click here for Seattle Times news story.
August 22, 1999: Supporters of affirmative action in Florida say the proposed 2000 ballot initiative is misleading. Meanwhile, those opposed to affirmative action have gathered over 55,000 signatures. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
August 20, 1999: California Democrats set goals for diverse convention in 2000. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
August 19, 1999: Governor Jeb Bush is reconsidering a redistricting plan that would trim representation among blacks in South Florida districts. Click here for St. Petersburg Times news story.
August 18, 1999: Ward Connerly announces that petitions seeking a ballot initiative to do away with affirmative action programs have been signed by enough Floridians to warrant a review by the state supreme court. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
August 18, 1999: The University of Georgia announces that it will stop giving an automatic preference in admissions to male applicants. The change follows a lawsuit in which a woman claimed she was rejected because she is white and female.
August 14, 1999: As California businessman Ward Connerly forges ahead with a drive to ban affirmative action in Florida, Governor Jeb Bush is planning his own review of the state's preference programs and may try to make changes. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
August 5, 1999: NPR's Tovia Smith reports on reaction to a new survey which supports the idea that a diverse student body adds quality to a student's education. A poll of 1,820 law school students at Harvard and University of Michigan found a majority of students - most of whom were white - found that having classmates of a different race had enhanced their learning. But some experts question whether such a poll is a reliable measure. Click here for NPR news story. Scroll down to story entitled "Race at Harvard."NOTE: You must have the Real Player to listen to this report.
July 31, 1999: Affirmative Action foe Ward Connerly has gathered 43,000 signatures in his bid to add an anti-Affirmative Action measure to the 2000 Florida ballot. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
July 28, 1999: In a blow to affirmative action, Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday
vetoed a bill that would have declared outreach programs for minorities and
women permissible despite Proposition 209, a voter-approved ban on preferential
treatment by government based on race or gender. Click
here for complete story.
A branch of the ACLU is suing the state of California for
not providing all high-school students with equal access to Advanced Placement
courses. The class action charges that black, Hispanic, and low-income students
who attend high schools with few A.P. offerings are at a disadvantage in applying
to colleges that consider those classes when deciding whether to admit students.
Also on July 28, a federal judge rules that the University of
Wisconsin's affirmative-action plan did not justify its use of race as a determining
factor in a faculty-hiring decision. Finally, the National Research Council
releases a report noting that colleges should be wary of relying too heavily
on standardized-test scores in admissions and more candid about the criteria
they use to admit students.
July 21, 1999: The Alliance for Equity in Higher Education is
founded from three higher-education associations that have joined in order to
create a new group to lobby for colleges that specifically serve the United
States' growing minority population. The Alliance will represent 321 institutions
that enroll a third of the country's African-American, Hispanic, and American
Indian
students.
July 20, 1999: President Clinton calls on the nation's law schools
to increase the racial and ethnic diversity of their student
bodies. His comments were made during a White House meeting with 150 leaders
in the legal profession aimed at expanding opportunities for minority lawyers
and encouraging law firms to do more pro bono work that benefits members of
minority groups.
July 15, 1999: The Florida Board of Regents votes not to create two new public law schools in the state, opting instead to spend up to $2.5-million on new scholarships and other programs for minority students. The decision angers some black and Hispanic lawmakers who have argued that the state needs the schools to train more minority lawyers.
July 14, 1999: A small group of retirees from Homestead to Margate are joining forces with deep-pocket building contractors to fuel a statewide campaign to ban affirmative action in Florida. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
July 13, 1999: During a panel discussion at the annual conference of the Education Commission of the States, various higher-education leaders argue that colleges and universities need to find a measure other than standardized tests to assess applicants in an era when affirmative-action policies are under attack at the ballot box and in the courts.
July 12, 1999: A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit challenging the University of Georgia's use of racial preferences to admit some minority students, while at the same time strongly chastising university officials for supporting the policy, which he said was probably unconstitutional.
July 8, 1999: Tape of Unity Day 1999 in Seattle, WA. Discussion of how diversity in the newsroom affects how Affirmative Action and diversity is portrayed in the media. Note: You MUST have the Real Player to listen to this report. Click to listen to the Talk of the Nation Transcript.
July 6, 1999: The Florida NAACP is vigorously opposing Ward Connerly's bid to end Affirmative Action in the state. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
June 30, 1999: As an attempt to fend off lawsuits, Oklahoma announces that it has eliminated set-asides for female and minority students in a state scholarship program.
June 26, 1999: South Florida's general contractors were urged Friday to openly repudiate Ward Connerly's attempts to ban affirmative action in Florida. Click here for Miami Herald news story.
June 25, 1999: Ward Connerly hopes to gain the support of both Governor Jeb Bush of Florida and Governor George W. Bush of Texas in his fight against Affirmative Action. Governor Jeb Bush of Florida opposes Connerly's efforts to eliminate Affirmative Action in his state. Click here for St. Petersburg Times news story.
June 18, 1999: In preparation for a Congressional hearing on June 22, civil-rights groups urge college leaders to rally behind controversial Education Department draft guidelines on standardized tests and admissions policies. Members of the the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights favor the drafted federal guidelines on the use of standardized tests, support that worries many college leaders who rely on SAT and ACT scores. After being questioned by Congressional Republicans in the Tuesday meeting, the U.S. Education Department's chief civil-rights official noted that her staff would revise draft federal guidelines on standardized-test use to minimize the potential burden to colleges.
June 16, 1999: The US Dept of Education announces that it will award more than $21-million in grants to improve teaching in schools that serve students with limited proficiency in English. Much of the funds will support collaborative efforts by colleges and universities.
May 11, 1999: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights announced a briefing on affirmative action in higher education on May 14, 1999. The Commission will begin a discussion of this question with some of the nation's most distinguished thinkers on all sides of the issue.
April 6, 1999: At the annual meeting of the national association of historically black colleges, leaders argue that attacks on affirmative action and policies that restrict remedial classes at public colleges are limiting African Americans' access to higher education.
April 2, 1999: The University of California releases enrollment figures that reveal that the number of black, Chicano, Latino, and American Indian applicants admitted for this fall's freshman class nearly equals the number from 1997, the last year affirmative action was used in the admissions process. Even though the total number of underrepresented-minority applicants admitted to the system's eight campuses is just 27 shy of the 1997 mark, however, the elite Berkeley campus is still far behind.
April 1, 1999: A Lecturer who claims he was not considered for a tenure-track post at San Francisco State University because his dean had ruled out hiring a white man has been awarded $2.75-million by a jury that found the university guilty of discrimination.
March 29, 1999: The University of Michigan announces that it is mounting an ambitious, research-based defense against two lawsuits that challenge its use of racial preferences in admissions. The university intends to show, through reports and testimony by a high-powered set of social scientists, that the educational value of racial diversity justifies giving a slight edge to black and Hispanic applicants as a way of increasing their presence on the Ann Arbor campus.
March 23, 1999: A report issued today announces that California has become an inhospitable place for members of underrepresented minority groups who are applying to medical schools. A joint project by two University of California research centers reports significant drops in minority applications, admissions, and enrollments in the state's medical schools.
March 19, 1999: Embracing a controversial view of academic merit that has spawned debate nationwide, the Board of Regents of the University of California agrees to admit the top 4 % of graduates from each high school in the state -- the most significant alteration of entrance criteria at the prestigious university system in two decades.
March 18: 1999: Officials at the University of Washington announce that scholarships based on race and gender could remain intact, although applicants would first have to pass a screening process based on neutral factors. University officials had initially proposed ending many scholarships restricted to minority students and women after voters in November approved measure I-200.
March 16, 1999: In a preview of the long battle to come, a California businessman leading a new campaign to ban affirmative action in Florida traded verbal shots Monday with politicians and black leaders who oppose him. Click here for St. Petersburg Times article.
Week of March 15, 1999: Officials at the University of Washington Law School announce that the number of black applicants has dropped 41 percent since last year. The figure provides the first picture of law-school admissions in the state since voters approved measure I-200 in November, the measure that bars public universities from using racial preferences in admissions.
March 14, 1999: Ward Connerly announces that Florida will be the next battleground in the fight over affirmative action. He vows to have another initiative added to the 2000 ballot. Click here for St. Petersburg Times story.
March 9, 1999: The Supreme Court signaled it is still looking for the best case to test current affirmative action laws, but rejected two cases Monday. The court rejected without comment appeals by a white University of Nevada professor claiming discrimination and a case from Florida's Dade County seeking to reinstate an affirmative action contracting program. Click here for CNN story.
March 1, 1999: The University of Massachusetts at Amherst decides to stop giving a significant edge in admissions to minority applicants. Officials cite recent court rulings as a factor in the decision, which spurs protest on the campus.
February 22, 1999: A federal judge postpones today's scheduled start of a trial over affirmative action at the University of Washington Law School so that the plaintiffs -- who oppose racial preferences -- could appeal crucial pre-trial rulings, including one that upheld classroom diversity as a sufficient reason for colleges to admit students partly based on their race or ethnicity. The appeal may be an effort to speed up a possible review by the U.S. Supreme Court of affirmative action in college admissions.
February 19, 1999: Calling its decision a "sign of the times," the University of Massachusetts at Amherst announces that it will rely less on race and more on factors such as socio-economic status and extracurricular activities when admitting students and awarding financial aid. College officials predict that the change would cause minority enrollment to drop from 19 % of the student population to between 13 % and 16 % next year, and minority-student leaders subsequently warn administrators to expect protests against the policy.
February 15, 1999: A federal judge affirms that the Bakke decision--the decision that supported the use of racial considerations in admissions decisions to achieve educational diversity--is still valid and will be a basis for deciding an affirmative-action lawsuit at the University of Washington's Law School. But Judge Thomas S. Zilly also ruled that the university's affirmative-action program must be subjected to "rigorous scrutiny" to determine whether it was narrowly tailored to achieve genuine educational diversity. [See the sub-page on Washington State's Inititiative 200.]
February 10, 1999: A federal judge narrows the scope of an affirmative-action lawsuit against the University of Washington's law school, ruling that a voter-approved ban on racial preferences had made much of the case moot. But the judge agreed to consider whether the university's now-abandoned admissions policy illegally discriminated against three white applicants, so the case still has significant national import.
February 5, 1999: This week a federal judge dismissed two gender-discrimination lawsuits brought by four female athletes against the University of Minnesota at Duluth. The ruling was that the women did not have legal standing to sue the university.
February 4, 1999: The US Department of Labor is investigating whether Stanford University has violated federal affirmative-action law by failing to maintain a plan for hiring and promoting more female faculty members.
February 3, 1999: Heeding the warnings of affirmative-action proponents, Boston school officials decide today not to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to pass judgment on a race-based school admissions policy that a federal appeals court had struck down. The case has raised many of the same legal questions currently confronted by selective public colleges seeking to maintain diverse enrollments.
February 2, 1999: Eight minority students and three minority organizations file a class-action lawsuit against the University of California at Berkeley and charge that the university is violating a federal anti-bias law by placing too much emphasis in admissions decisions on standardized-test scores and completion of Advanced Placement courses.
January 26, 1999: According to a trustee "handbook" released today by a non-profit legal firm that has sued colleges over affirmative action policies, trustees should study federal-court decisions on affirmative action and end campus policies that use preferences to increase racial diversity. The explicit claim (threat?) is that this is the only means by which universities may protect themselves from lawuits.
January 22, 1999: This last week, a federal judge finds the University of North Texas guilty of discriminating against a black professor by paying him less than his white colleagues. University officials say they will appeal the jury's order.
January 20, 1999: According to statistics released today, the number of black and Hispanic applicants to the University of California at Berkeley has dropped more than 10 per cent for next fall's freshman class, although the number of minority students applying to all campuses in the state system has increased.
January 14, 1999: As the UC Regents prepare to hold their first meeting
in 16 years without a Republican governor, speculation that they may revisit
the question of Proposition 209 grows. Gov. Gray Davis has called on the regents
to approve a new policy of admitting all students who graduate in the top 4%
of their high school classes. Meanwhile, Davis has pushed the idea of admitting
4% of each high school class as a way to "promote diversity." The UC system
now throws all students into a statewide competition for seats--admitting about
the top 12% statewide--no matter if they come from the best suburban high school
or the poorest urban one. That move is almost certain to pass in the next few
months. Although it has garnered much attention, it would have little if any
impact on the enrollment of more Latinos and African Americans at UC's elite
campuses.
Some regents have hatched another, more provocative plan: to repeal the university's
ban on affirmative action. Such a repeal would be in part a symbolic gesture,
given that Proposition 209's ban on racial preferences takes precedence over
university policy. But a recent court decision narrowly interpreting Proposition
209 could give UC admissions officers more flexibility--if they chose to use
it. "It would provide us with some leverage down the road as Prop. 209 works
its way through the courts," said Eugene Garcia, dean of UC Berkeley's School
of Education. And even the symbolism of repealing the ban could be important.
"We have tainted ourselves, rightly or wrongly, that we are adverse to diversity,"
said Regent William Bagley. The ban, pushed through by former Gov. Pete Wilson
and his appointed regents such as Ward Connerly, has sent the wrong message
to black and Latino students and harmed the university's reputation, Bagley
said. Bagley said he has counted the votes and believes that the Board
of Regents could reverse its 1995 ban on all forms of affirmative action, depending
on how Davis fills four vacancies. Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa
(D-Los Angeles), whose position makes him a UC regent, said he would vote to
lift the ban and do anything else that would open up the university to more
minority students. But, he cautioned, he doesn't want to waste time on
symbolic gestures. "I'm interested in real change, not just form over substance."
January 11, 1999: A federal judge rules that an admissions policy used by the University of Georgia from 1990 to 1995 to grant preferences to black applicants was unconstitutional. In his rejection of an argument championed by some groups that the system was needed to promote diversity, the judge criticized the "stigmatizing, polarizing costs imposed by racial classifications."
Week of January 4, 1999: Without much fanfare or public notice, the University of Texas at Austin quietly terminates a $300,000-a-year program aimed at recruiting minority professors, out of concern that the program could be barred by a court ruling that led the state to stop using racial preferences in admissions.
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