Statement of Interest

Amici curiae are the Civil Rights Clinic and the Education Rights Center at Howard University School of Law. While Howard is often referred to as one of the nation's premier historically Black universities, the school's mission has always been to provide a premier education to all regardless of race or gender. Our nearly 150-year history of providing education, regardless of race, has been informed by the painful reckoning that, at the nation's founding, white supremacy, white superiority, and white privilege were interwoven into the DNA of this country's institutions. Our history and experience in student diversity has also been driven by the clear-eyed acknowledgment that the remains of white privilege continue to haunt our institutions. We respectfully submit this brief in support of Respondents in the belief that any analysis of the constitutionality of race-conscious affirmative action programs in higher education is, at best, incomplete and, at worst, disingenuous without an honest assessment of the role that racial subordination and separation played in the foundation, establishment, and preservation of our most elite higher education institutions. FN1