A Study Of African American Higher Education Policy In The 1960s And 1970s

The development of black higher education has been lagging behind the overall development trend of American's.In the middle of the 19 th century,American higher education began to step into the transition stage from elite education.After more than half a century of development,more and more students gained the opportunity to receive higher education.However,as an important part of American society,the achievements of development did not benefit the black people fairly.The higher education of the black people still developed at a slow speed,and they lagged behind the white people in both scale and quality.Especially after the Second World War,the serious racial problems in the country were incompatible with the growing momentum of the development of the United States.The problems of racial segregation and racial discrimination were fully exposed.The phenomenon of racial inequality in higher education also attracted widespread attention.However,as a social administrator,the federal government had always taken a passive attitude on racial issues,which aroused the fierce resistance of the black people.Since the 1950 s,the tide of civil rights swept across the United States.The development of the civil rights movement and the improvement of the social status of the black people encouraged the black civil rights activists to pursue equal rights throughout the country.Out of respect for the international image,coupled with a liberal President Kennedy's transformated attitude toward black issues compared with before governments,made the successors in the next two decades take an active attitude to promote the safeguard of equal rights of black people,the process of black higher education also be benefited.During this period,the federal government issued corresponding policies to support the development of black higher education,which mainly included the following four aspects: developped the HBCUs with kinds of measures,provided equal opportunities for blacks as whites had,eliminated racial segregation in colleges and universities,and provided financial aid for poor black students to help them complete their studies.The promulgation and implementation of these policies greatly changed the development of black higher education.About the effects of the implementation of these policies,firstly,they had promoted the development of black higher education,especially in promoting the development of HBCUs and promoting the transformation of black higher education.Secondly,this series of policies had undoubtedly played an important role in improving the political and economic status of the black people.With the improvement of the knowledge level and economic status of the black people,the ranks of the black middle class had gradually grown,and the continuous development of the black student movement had aroused the equality consciousness of the black people.The appeals for racial equality had gradually become an important voice in American society that cannot be ignored.However,in the implementation process of these policies,there were also practical problems such as reverse discrimination and the difficulty of colleges and universities to undertake their responsibilities,which had become the points of being criticized by people in the future.As a result,some policies were difficult to continue to be implemented in the debate,thus they were canceled and abolished instead.