Shreyvardhan Sharma ’22, a Crimson Editorial editor, is a Computer Science concentrator in Eliot House. His column appears on alternate Mondays.
As Harvard continues to stand up for its race-conscious admissions policies against a lawsuit widely expected to reach the Supreme Court, it is instructive to examine how affirmative action became one of the most contentious social and political issues in higher education. This column is dedicated to examining the shifting narratives surrounding affirmative action: the changing arguments in favor of it, the arguments against it, and where it fits into the American cultural and racial landscape today.
The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 represented a watershed moment in the long and arduous struggle for racial equality in the United States. The Voting Rights Act secured Black Americans the right to vote, enforcing the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. The Civil Rights Act specifically Title V