Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Page Number: 105

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

57 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

M. Hammond, L. Owens, & B. Gulko, Social Mobility Out-
comes  for  HBCU  Alumni,  United  Negro  College  Fund  4 
(2021) (Hammond), https://cdn.uncf.org/wp-content/uploads/
Social-Mobility-Report-FINAL.pdf;  see  also  87  Fed.  Reg.
57567 (placing the percentage of black doctors even higher,
at 70%).  In fact, Xavier University, an HBCU with only a 
small percentage of white students, has had better success
at  helping  its  low-income  students  move  into  the  middle
class than Harvard has.  See Hammond 14; see also Brief 
for Oklahoma et al. as Amici Curiae 18.  And, each of the 
top 10 HBCUs have a success rate above the national aver-
age.  Hammond 14.12 

Why, then, would this Court need to allow other univer-
sities  to  racially  discriminate?    Not  for  the  betterment  of 
those  black  students,  it  would  seem.  The  hard  work  of 
HBCUs and their students demonstrate that “black schools 
can function as the center and symbol of black communities, 
and provide examples of independent black leadership, suc-
cess,  and  achievement.”    Jenkins,  515  U. S.,  at  122 
—————— 

12 Such  black  achievement  in  “racially  isolated”  environments  is  nei-
ther new nor isolated to higher education.  See T. Sowell, Education: As-
sumptions Versus History 7–38 (1986).  As I have previously observed, 
in the years preceding Brown, the “most prominent example of an exem-
plary black school was Dunbar High School,” America’s first public high
school for black students.  Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Se-
attle School Dist. No. 1, 551 U. S. 701, 763 (2007) (concurring opinion). 
Known for its academics, the school attracted black students from across 
the Washington, D. C., area.  “[I]n the period 1918–1923, Dunbar gradu-
ates  earned  fifteen  degrees  from  Ivy  League  colleges,  and  ten  degrees 
from  Amherst,  Williams,  and  Wesleyan.”    Sowell,  Education:  Assump-
tions Versus History, at 29.  Dunbar produced the first black General in
the U. S. Army, the first black Federal Court Judge, and the first black 
Presidential  Cabinet  member.    A.  Stewart,  First  Class:  The  Legacy  of 
Dunbar 2 (2013).  Indeed, efforts towards racial integration ultimately 
precipitated  the  school’s  decline.    When  the  D. C.  schools  moved  to  a 
neighborhood-based  admissions  model,  Dunbar  was  no  longer  able  to 
maintain  its  prior  admissions  policies—and  “[m]ore  than  80  years  of 
quality education came to an abrupt end.”  T. Sowell, Wealth, Poverty 
and Politics 194 (2016).