By Gerald R. Ford
The New York Times Op-Ed, Sunday, August8, 1999
Of all the triumphs that have marked this asAmerica's century -- breathtaking advances in science andtechnology, the democratization of wealth and dispersal ofpolitical power in ways hardly imaginable in 1899 -- none is moreinspiring, if incomplete, than our pursuit of racial justice. Themilestones include Theodore Roosevelt's inviting Booker T.Washington to dine at the White House, Harry Truman'sdesegregating the armed forces, Dwight Eisenhower's using Federaltroops to integrate Little Rock's Central High School and LyndonJohnson's electrifying the nation by standing before Congress in1965 and declaring, "We shall overcome."
I came by my support of that year's Voting RightsAct naturally. Thirty years before Selma, I was a University ofMichigan senior, preparing with my Wolverine teammates for afootball game against visiting Georgia Tech. Among the bestplayers on that year's Michigan squad was Willis Ward, a closefriend of mine whom the Southern school reputedly wanted droppedfrom our roster because he was black. My classmates were just asadamant that he should take the field. In the end, Willis decidedon his own not to play.
His sacrifice led me to question how educationaladministrators could capitulate to raw prejudice. A university,after all, is both a preserver of tradition and a hotbed ofinnovation. So long as books are kept open we tell ourselves,minds can never be closed.
But doors, too, must be kept open. Tolerance,breadth of mind and appreciation for the world beyond ourneighborhoods: these can be learned on the football field and inthe science lab as well as in the lecture hall. But only ifstudents are exposed to America in all her variety.
For the class of '35, such educationalopportunities were diminished by the relative scarcity of African-Americans,women and various ethnic groups on campus. I have often wonderedhow different the world might have been in the 1940's. 50's and60's -- how much more humane and just -- if my generation hadexperienced a more representative sampling of the American family.That the indignities visited on Willis Ward would be unimaginablein today's Ann Arbor is a measure of how far we have come towardrealizing however belatedly the promises we made to each other indeclaring our nationhood and professing our love of liberty.
And yet. In the last speech of his life, Lyndon,Johnson reminded us of how much unfinished work remained. "Tobe black in a white society is not to stand on level and equalground," he said. "While the races may stand side byside, whites stand on history's mountain and blacks stand inhistory's hollow. Until we overcome unequal history, we cannotovercome unequal opportunity.
Like so many phrases that have become politicalbuzzwords, affirmative action means different things to differentpeople. Practically speaking, it runs the gamut from mandatoryquotas, which the Supreme Court has ruled are clearlyunconstitutional to mere lip service, which is just as clearlyunacceptable.
At its core, affirmative action should try tooffset past injustices by fashioning a campus population moretruly reflective of modern America and our hopes for the future.Unfortunately, a pair of lawsuits brought against my alma materpose a threat to such diversity. Not content to oppose formalquotas, plaintiffs suing the University of Michigan wouldprohibit that and other universities from even considering raceas one of many factors weighed by admission counselors.
So drastic a ban would scuttle Michigan's currentsystem one that takes into account nearly a dozen elements --race, economic standing, geographic origin, athletic and artisticachievement among them -- to create the finest educationalenvironment for all students.
This eminently reasonable approach, as thoughtfulas it is fair, has produced a student body with a significantminority component whose record of academic success isoutstanding.
Times of change are times of challenge. It isestimated that by 2030, 40 percent of all Americans will belongto various racial minorities. Already the global economy requiresunprecedented grasp of diverse viewpoints and cultural traditions.I don't want future college students to suffer the cultural andsocial impoverishment that afflicted my generation. If historyhas taught us anything in this remarkable century, it is thenotion of America as a work in progress.
Do we really want to risk turning back the clockto an era when the Willis Wards were isolated and penalized forthe color of their skin, their economic standing or nationalancestry?
To eliminate a constitutional affirmative actionpolicy would mock the inclusive vision Carl Sandburg had in mindwhen he wrote: "The Republic is a dream. Nothing happensunless first a dream." Lest we forget: America remains anation with have-nots as well as haves. Its government isobligated to provide for hope no less than for the common defense.
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Last Updated: Tuesday, August 10, 1999