Why Harvard Law Is Losing Black Students

Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.

At the start of each academic year, Harvard Law School's Black Law Students Association leads a trip for new students to Martha's Vineyard. It's a chance for them to get to know each other, to meet older black students, to become a part of a community.

And this year some of the second and third year students noticed there were fewer black first year law students.

Janet Lauren covers higher education for Bloomberg News.

So after that trip in September, they got together and said, we need to do something about this.

The members of h Balsa, as the group is known, they're trying to take matters into their own hands because this is the first class admitted after the Supreme Court banned the use of race and admissions. And there's already been a notable impact. And for a school like Harvard, with such a vast alumni network and a history of churning out leaders in business and politics, that impact could eventually mean fewer opportunities for black Americans to get ahead.

Harvard's place in America is you know, it's the richest college, being down in fifty three billion dollars, its oldest, richest, most influential. Harvard Law School is a pathway to the American elite.

Many black Harvard Law students' careers have taken off after graduation. Barack and Michelle Obama are perhaps the most famous alumni.

There's been a few CEOs Ken Channel to ran American Express, Ken Frazier, Haran Merk, Deborah Lee who ran Black Entertainment television. And there is a Supreme.

Court justice as well, that's Ketanji Brown Jackson. But a decade ago, Harvard was sued. The plaintiffs alleged to the university's race conscious admissions process was illegal because it gave favorable treatment to applicants from underrepresented backgrounds. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and in twenty twenty three, Harvard lost in a six to three decision.

They decided that race could no longer be used in college admissions.

Harvard and all other schools can no longer consider the race of applicants when they make admissions decisions. And now we're starting to understand how that case might impact admissions at Harvard Law. A year after that Supreme Court decision, only around three percent of first year students were black, just nineteen.

Students, down from about forty three the previous year. It's been a sharp decline.

Harvard Law's first year class is the largest among America's elite law schools, but interestingly, enrollment of black students at other elite law schools like Stanford, the University of Chicago, Yale, and Duke actually increased. Janet says. The reason numbers may be lower at Harvard could be because the school was one of just two schools involved in that Supreme Court ruling, so it has to tread carefully.

But it was surprising. This year, there were more black first year students at Yale than at Harvard, even with a huge difference in size.

What has Harvard said about this.

Change, Well, the law school officially doesn't really want to say much other than their following the law. I mean, they are a law school. They have to follow a law. They say, We continue to believe that a student body composed of, you know, people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experience a vital component of a legal education. However, they are hamstrung in what they can say about how

And beyond that court case, it's no small thing for a university like Harvard to take on the US government.

They receive a tremendous amount of federal funding, almost seven hundred million dollars in the last academic year. Harvard students receive federal student loan money. You know, if you want to go to Harvard Law School, Harvard Business School, chances are not everyone's going to be able to write a check for one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, so you're borrowing.

So when it comes to recruiting more black law students, current students in h BOLSA, the Black Law Students Association have stepped into a leading role. Janet spoke with the group's president, Sean Wynn, who said he noticed the first sign of declining enrollment about a year ago when admitted students started visiting campus. Then there was that fall retreat to Martha's Vineyard. Suddenly recruiting black students felt more urgent, as.

Sean said, one year, you know, is not good, but if you have two years and three years, then the whole character of the place really changes.

We spoke with one of the students who's spending time recruiting black applicants.

I'm kuswit chum Anti, I also.

Go by KOs Coas is a second year law student at Harvard and a member of h BALSA. She says part of the reason she decided to become a lawyer was seeing the powerful black lawyers who ran the NAACP Legal Defense Fund where she worked as a college student.

Everyone in charge was a black woman, and for me, like that meant a lot. Like I remember running into like Sherilyn Eifel before she was going to the capital, and she was grabbing coffee and she's like, hey, how are you?

And I was like, ah, I feel was president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund at the time Coas was working there.

I was so exciting to see people who look like me leading a charge for something and having a meaningful impact. And so that's actually what really pushed me to go to law school, was seeing them in the office and being surrounded by just incredible lawyers, but I think incredible black lawyers.

When Coas arrived at Harvard, she immediately felt welcomed by the older ah Bolsa students, and now she wants to make sure future black law students feel that same sense of belonging.

Me and two other members just actually came back from DC last weekend and we visited for colleges. I was just connecting with black pre law students, answering any questions that they may have, kind of giving them an overview of what the application process looks like. I think a lot of people feel when we are going to these

To fit in.

So our biggest thing is to one provide resources for people, but to also show them that they can find community.

Co says she's hoping that by jumping in early and responding to the dip they saw last year, h BALSA can make a difference in the future. But what's at stake if their efforts aren't enough, that's after the break. In recent decades, black alumni of Harvard Law School have worked hard to establish a strong sense of community and to help younger graduates professionally. Bloomberg's Janet Lauren says the success of alumni in the nineteen sixties has helped propel generations of alumni.

Conrad Harper was the only black student when he graduated in nineteen sixty five, and he ended up at Simpson Thatcher first black partner. He headed the New York Bar Association. Very prominent guy, and in some ways his success had a multiplying effect on others. Simpson Thatcher has a fellowship named in his honor in You know, when you see someone who's been successful and their path could potentially be replicated,

Someone who has followed that path is John Carr. He graduated from Harvard Law in nineteen eighty three, and like Harper, he spent his career at the New York law firm Simpson Thatcher today, he's worried about avenues of opportunity for Black Americans being narrowed as more and more anti dei initiatives become accepted in the law.

He told me that it feels like we'ren't a new Jim Crow, speaking of what the segregated South was for a very very long time.

Janet also spoke with Deborah Lee, Harvard Law class of nineteen eighty She's the former chairman and CEO of Black Entertainment Television. Lee was among a group of black alumni who joined a Zoom call late last year to discuss the drop in enrollment. She told Janet that she wants to help the law school recruit better and make sure the numbers don't fall. She said that much more needs to be done. After the Supreme Court decision, Harvard had

They're very open ended, and a statement of perspective is looking backwards and is an invitation to share something about how you grew up. Perhaps it says, please share how your experiences background in our interests have shaped you and will shape your engagement in the Harvard Law School community and the legal profession.

COS and other members of the Harvard Black Law Students Association have been creating informational materials, visiting college campuses, and reading essays. When they meet with prospective students, CO says they try to make it clear those students can acknowledge their identities in their applications.

I guess A big question that we get is like whether or not they can talk about their blackness and their materials. A lot of people will ask like should I take off from my resume that I was like the president of our black student union, or like should I not talk about my race at all? And I tell them like, no, Like, that's the part of your identity. It is an important part of you, of who you are, and when you link it to the other experience that you have, it makes a story more whole and complete.

Co says that information isn't just important into a perspective student's application, it will also shape their perspective on the law and their understanding of it, which is why she says representation is important.

I think in a law school the whole point is to be exposed those ideas and to uplift people with different voices. And so when you see a case like this and maybe the impact of it you do worry about. You know, whether or not the legal feel is going to be reflective of our country and our world and what that means then for the type of issues that are going to be uplifted. The perspectives that will be heard.

That's something Katanji Brown Jackson, who went to Harvard College and Harvard Law School, spoke of quite emotionally during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings in twenty twenty two.

I was walking through Harvard Yard my freshman year.

Jackson described the imposter syndrome she felt upon arriving on.

Campus the first semester. I was really homesick. I was really questioning do I belong here.

One night, jack passed by a black woman she didn't know on the sidewalk in Harvard Yard.

And she looked at me, and I guess she knew how I was feeling.

And just as they crossed paths, the woman told her persevere. And that's the message Jackson hoped to deliver to the young people watching her become the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

The young people are the future, and so I want them to know that they can do and be anything.

In twenty twenty three, Jackson was one of three justices who voted against the Court's Affirmative Action ruling, although she participated only in a parallel case involving the University of North Carolina. Since she previously served on Harvard's Board of Overseers. Justice Jackson wrote in her descent quote, Ultimately, ignoring race just makes it matter more. This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm David Gera. This episode is produced