PAPERBACK ISBN: 0-88258-074-4    $27.95

180 pages; 6 x 9 inches

A Historical Justification for Affirmative Action for Blacks in Higher Education

by John Fleming

The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery by John Fleming chronicles selected events in the history of African Americans from slavery to the mid-1970s and examines key factors that either impeded or enhanced their struggle to acquire education. Its author maintains that the barriers erected to keep blacks in a state of submission were firmly established during slavery.  Following emancipation, different but equally effective impediments were institutionalized to prevent blacks from obtaining education and break­ing out of the caste system to which they had been relegated. One clear manifestation of that retrenchment is the hostility presently evidenced toward affirmative action. This study was undertaken by the Institute for the Study of Educational Policy because, as Fleming powerfully asserts,  many of the historical barriers to blacks in education remain. In The Lengthening Shadow of Slavery, he contends that it has become increasingly evident that the federal government, and the people it represents, have wavered in their commitment to equal opportunity for blacks in a manner reminiscent of the short-lived Reconstruction Era after the Civil War. He convincingly argues, however, that a sustained commitment to affirmative action is necessary to rectify generations of denial.

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