The Integration of the UCLA School of Law, 19661978

Architects of Affirmative Action

By (author) Miguel Espinoza

Publication date:

01 December 2017

Length of book:

412 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9781498531627

In 1966, a group of UCLA law school professors sparked the era of affirmative action by creating one of the earliest and most expansive race-conscious admissions programs in higher education. The Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP) served to integrate the legal profession by admitting large cohorts of minority students under non-traditional standards, and sending them into the world as emissaries of integration upon graduation. Together, these students bent the arc of educational equality, and the LEOP served as a model for similar programs around the country. Drawing upon rich historical archives and interviews with dozens of students and professors who helped integrate UCLA, this book argues that such programs should be reinstituted— and with haste— because affirmative action worked.

Chapter 1: A Revolutionary’s Attitude

Chapter 2: Affirmative Programs Must Be Initiated

Chapter 3: Diversity Arrives

Chapter 4: Summer of ‘68

Chapter 5: A Rising Tide

Chapter 6: Continued Expansion

Chapter 7: Battle Lines

Chapter 8: In the Shadow of Bakke

Chapter 9: End of an Era

Access to education remains one of the great equalizers in America today. But for too many Americans— especially those from low-income communities of color— our nation's colleges and universities remain out of reach. This book tells the story of UCLA's pioneering effort to break down the barriers to higher education through one of the largest and most successful affirmative action programs ever created. As the fight for educational equality continues today, this book provides powerful evidence that affirmative action works, and serves as an important reminder of our obligation to ensure the doors of opportunity remain open to all.