President Bollinger on Diversity in Education

As president of the University of Michigan, Bollinger led the school’s landmark civil rights litigation in Grutter v. Bollinger, a Supreme Court decision that for the first time upheld the constitutional right of colleges and universities to engage in affirmative action to advance diversity in higher education. He speaks and writes frequently about the value of racial, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity to American society through opinion columns, media interviews, and public appearances around the country. His book with Professor Geoffrey Stone, A Legacy of Discrimination: The Essential Constitutionality of Affirmative Action, was published in early 2023.

President Bollinger reflects on the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education.

"We urgently need a more serious, realistic, and open discussion about race in the United States today. Along with it, we need a new movement like the one that led to Brown—before it is too late, and the issue vanishes beneath another cycle of inattention."

Lee C. Bollinger, "Sixty Years Later, We Need a New Brown," The New Yorker, 2016
A group of black and white school children from an integrated school in Washington, D.C. in 1955.