In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to end affirmative action, Black high school seniors are facing a new college admissions reality — particularly at some of the nation’s most elite institutions.

Predominantly white, elite institutions such as Amherst College, Tufts University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have all reported notable drops in Black student enrollment for their incoming classes. At Amherst, the percentage of Black students in the incoming freshman class plummeted from 11% last year to just 3% this year. Similarly, Tufts University saw a drop from 7.3% to 4.7%, while the percentage of Black students in the MIT freshman class dropped from 15% to 5% in just one year. In addition, the Brown Daily Herald recently announced that Brown University’s Black freshman enrollment dropped by 40%, dropping from 15% to 9% this year.

These reductions suggest that the removal of race-conscious admissions had an immediate and negative impact on Black student representation at these selective institutions. However, other universities, like Harvard University, whose Black enrollment fell from 14% last year to 10%, and Emory University, 13% to 12%, only saw moderate to slight declines, while institutions such as Princeton University, Duke University, and Yale University showed little to no decrease or small increases.

Experts have been confused about why some institutions have shown an increase in Black enrollment, attributing it to changes in how colleges identify students or weigh application elements, such as the essay. However, many elite institutions saw significant decreases after the affirmative action ruling.

“Their decision moved the nation backward and upended decades of precedent that allowed America’s colleges and universities to build diverse environments,” said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre during a recent press conference.

Indeed, the declining Black student enrollment at elite colleges and universities is more than just a statistic — it signals that the pathway to these institutions may be narrowing. This shift in college demographics is not only reducing the racial diversity of students at prestigious universities but also affecting K–12 education.

Ripple effects on Black K–12 students

In predominantly Black K–12 schools, where resources are often limited, Allison Wiltz, an English teacher in New Orleans, La., said the motivation to pursue admission to the Ivy League or other top-tier schools “will wane as students see fewer examples of their peers succeeding in this pursuit.”

“Depriving Black students of equal access to those opportunities means there will be fewer Black students with access to that network,” Wiltz told Word In Black. “Black K–12 schools receive significantly less funding, and research has demonstrated there is a connection between funding, grades, and test scores.”

Black students are more likely to attend underfunded schools with fewer experienced teachers and academic resources. “They can’t be expected to have grades and test scores that compete with those of students who received more funding,” Wiltz said.

The surge in HBCUs

At the same time that predominantly white colleges and universities are becoming less accessible to Black students, there is a renewed interest in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) — institutions that have long provided a supportive and culturally affirming environment for Black students.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, HBCU enrollment has risen by 4% this fall. In 2024, several HBCUs have experienced record enrollment increases: Bethune-Cookman University saw a 24.13% jump in enrollment, growing from 2,516 students in 2023 to 3,123 in 2024. Hampton University expects about 1,200 new students, bringing its total undergraduate population close to 4,000.

Regarding increased applications alone, Howard University received 37,000 applications for the incoming class of 2,500 freshmen, a 12% increase from the previous year, and Florida A&M University has seen applications nearly double over the last two years.

Angela Nixon Boyd, associate vice president of enrollment and dean of admission at Hampton University, emphasized the impact of the Supreme Court’s decision on Black students.

“I think that many students recognize that this ruling impacted them personally, and so they, again, want to be in an environment where they feel welcomed, feel safe, and … feel that they will have an opportunity for success,” she told WAVY in early September.

Where we go from here

Although the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action in college admissions has introduced a new barrier to higher education for college-bound high school students, Kiara Wilson, a high school guidance counselor in Atlanta, Ga., said there are solutions.

“Educators and administrators must work to foster an environment where Black students continue to see higher education as an attainable goal,” she said. “This includes addressing the psychological impacts of seeing fewer Black faces at elite institutions and reinforcing the value of pursuing academic excellence.”

Wilson said that regardless, all parties must make a concerted effort to ensure that Black students remain competitive applicants despite the ruling’s impact.

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Voting is taking place right now for the election of the next president of Teamsters Local 237. With the counting of votes set to take place Oct. 8, Local 237’s President Gregory Floyd spoke with the AmNews about some of the initiatives he’s worked on over the years to keep the nation’s largest local Teamsters union relevant.

Floyd has served as president of Local 237 since 2007. He says that over the years he has worked with various governing boards to increase union members’ salaries, implement programs like longevity pay, and maintain the member’s vaunted $5 co-pays for medical visits.

“We’ve managed over the last 30 years, including during my 17 years, to keep our prescription co-pays to our members at a minimum. While prescriptions have gone up, we’ve managed to maintain that cost. We’ve also managed to negotiate increased annuities for our members, which remains in a separate account for them, and they get interest on it so that when they leave work, they’re leaving with, I would say, tens of thousands of dollars each.”

Floyd touts his ability to negotiate with the various entities that play a role in the functioning of his union members’ jobs. He says it has given Local 237 the ability to forge contracts that keep members safe and able to work. Local 237 has more than 24,000 members. They work as public hospital police, elevator mechanics, school safety agents, custodians, cooks, NYCHA caretakers, water use inspectors, civil service attorneys, and cement masons/mason helpers. When union members have job issues, dealing with them often means negotiating with several different entities.

Contract negotiations can be challenging. “I wouldn’t say it’s combative,” Floyd said. “But in the public sector, there are factors that are involved. What are the factors? We have to look at what is the pattern and how do we get close to the pattern. How do we structure a contract that is, I would say, conducive to the needs of our members? Those are the factors.

“When you negotiate a CUNY contract for example –– a City University of New York contract –– you’re negotiating with three entities. It’s CUNY; it’s the city of New York, because two-year colleges are funded by New York City; and you’re negotiating with the state because the four-year colleges are funded by the state. All three entities have to agree. That’s why CUNY is the most difficult contract to negotiate and the state pattern tends to be less than the city pattern, yet the city pattern has to be taken into account and so does the state’s. So that’s why it ends up as a blended rate, CUNY got less, a little less than the city employees, because of the state contract.”

Floyd is this year on the ballot against Mohamed Alshami, a City University of New York (CUNY) peace officer. As Local 237’s president, Floyd says he can do more for his membership. “When we go into negotiations [for healthcare prescription co-pays], we offset a lot of the costs by negotiating with the city to get additional money for our benefits. The second thing is we invest the money we get and through investments, we’re able to extend the cost. We also look for subsidized discounts in our prescription plan that allow us to get rebates. So with all that combined, it allows us to keep the cost down for our members, and keeps it at the same price that we have had now for 30 years.”

Floyd’s challenger’s claims that he would come into office and try to change the way Local 237 functions is not realistic, he said.

“If he happened to win, he doesn’t have control of the executive board. So how would he accomplish any of the things that he says he wants to accomplish? The bylaws state, you can make recommendations, but you have to get the approval of the executive board, which he does not have.”

President Floyd says he is expecting more progress with the upcoming contracts he and the board are currently working on for union members. The challenge from Alshami, who he still says he has never physically met, has come out of nowhere.

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Congress got the ball rolling on H.R.6852 — a bill to designate Harlem’s Holcombe Rucker Park as a national commemorative site — as the legislation passed through the House this past Tuesday, September 24. If made into law, the bill would federally enshrine what is arguably the world’s most famous public basketball court.

“That legislation is more than just a symbolic gesture,” said sponsoring Rep. Adriano Espaillat over the phone. “It’s really a commitment to recognizing the historical and cultural significance of one of Harlem’s most cherished landmarks, Rucker Park. Back in the 50s, Holcombe Rucker, a World War II veteran, had a vision for Harlem’s youth.

“And he sought to create this space for young people as a refuge from the streets, and for them to push not only their basketball skills, but to push people towards higher education.”

Rucker organized street basketball tournaments around Upper Manhattan throughout the mid-1900s, ultimately drawing some of basketball’s biggest stars like Wilt Chamberlain and Harlemite Lew Alcindor, best known today as NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Through hoops, more than 700 athletic scholarships sprung from his events by the ‘50s.

While performances on the park’s hardtop court, now named after another prominent tournament organizer Greg Marius, do not count on an NBA statline, they remain pivotal to basketball lore. Kobe Bryant lives on through oral accounts of his 2002 appearance, down to the sunglasses and chain he wore.

From contemporary international superstars like LeBron James and Kevin Durant to New York-bred talent like Jamaica Queens’ Rafer Alston and Coney Island’s Stephon Marbury, Rucker Park allowed legends to grow even taller.

But while Rucker Park served as a staging ground for NBA players, it was a proving ground for streetball legends. Notably, Harlem’s Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond is said to have put up 50 points against Hall of Famer Julius “Dr. J” Erving during a tournament.

A national commemorative site designation recognizes a place’s contributions to American history on a federal level. It also allows the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) to partner with local organizations to drive educational initiatives for the park. Partnerships could range from schools to nonprofit organizations to the NYC Parks Department, according to Espaillat.

The congressman adds that he hopes such a designation will provide more opportunities for the surrounding community, particularly the NYCHA developments which often have some of the best seats in the house for tournaments.

“First, there will be a federal plaque recognizing the park installed in the park,” he said. “Second, it leaves the book open to educational activities [that] could be developed around the park, between the Department of Interior and [potentially] the New York City Department of Education or Parks Department, or even places like the Polo Grounds and the Rangel houses, which are right across the park.”

While the DOI’s National Park Service has previously designated national commemorative sites, Rucker Park would not be placed under the agency through Espaillat’s bill.

The bill now hits the Senate floor. If passed, it goes to the White House for the president to sign into law.

Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member who writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.

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Election Day is less than two months away, and the Eagle Academy for Young Men of Harlem is taking it upon themselves to make sure the youth meet the moment by hosting an on-campus voter registration drive on Thursday, September 26.

This Central Harlem school is encouraging its senior students — many of whom are 18 years old, or will be by Nov. 5 — to vote in this election. Another mission of this drive will be to encourage local Harlem residents to register to vote on Nov. 5. This push to the polls has been driven by Athletic Director and physical education teacher Jermel Collins-Day.

The 48-year-old Brooklyn native believes there is a major benefit to having young men in the K-12 space exposed to this initiative. “I think it’s imperative for them to have their right to vote… having the opportunity to be an asset to society is crucial,” he said.

This is the first time the school has had any event of this kind. Collins-Day added that many of the students were unfamiliar with a voter-registration event, much less the voting process.

“They said they didn’t know anything about how to vote or to go about voting. So this is a perfect segway for them to become productive members of society,” he said.

Collins-Day, who is also a doctoral candidate at Columbia University, has been coaching and teaching at Eagle Academy for nine years, and says he is encouraged by the questions his students have asked about the factors of this election. “The interests stem from: what are some of the politics, to policies on how to become a president.”

Seeing a Black woman with an opportunity to become the next president of the United States has been incredibly motivational for the kids, he added.

The students are well aware of the potential history that could be made if Vice President Kamala Harris — potentially the first woman, and only the second Black person — is elected, which Collins-Day says has been “huge” for the kids.

“If we can support her, it gives us hope for our future,” the coach said of the main response from the kids.

There will be a tent at the event on Thursday, which was planned to coincide with the annual parent engagement day, where students will be able speak to Harlem residents who come by. In the event of rain, Collins-Day said students will likely be moved to phone banking as a contingency plan for them to still reach the parents that aren’t able to attend.

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