Speech concerning the debate over the Supreme Court case Bakke v Regents and affirmative action, given at Paschal's Motor Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia, 1977 November 29 (1 of 5)

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One dropped out, but almost none would have ever been admitted if grade point averages had been allowed to determine their qualifications.

Ovel Knight, the Senior Class Award winner, is now an intern in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He has co-authored a paper in the journal of Vascular Surgery and earlier this month summed it all up when he said:

"Bakke says he's more qualified than the minority students are on grade points and test scores, and maybe he is. He's probably more qualified than half the whites in our class. But that's not the point--if admissions were based on grade point averages, Med Schools could turn out very intelligent medical computers. But they wouldn't be doctors."

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References

Material for this paper comes from a variety of sources, most of them not footnoted. They include:

"The Bakke Case Primer", Institute for the Study of Education Policy, Howard University, Washington, D. C. ;

"Affirmative Action: The Reversal of Discrimination", OP. CIT.;

Alan Bakke vs. The Regents of the University of California, (______) Plaintiff's Answers to Defendant's First Set of Interrogatories;

Political and Economic Implications of the Bakke Case. Rep. Louis Stokes (D-Ohio);

"Educators Fear a Ruling for Bakke Would Undo Minorities' Vast Gains", New York Times, October 25, 1977;

"Why Bakke Has No Case" Ronald Dworkin, The New York Review of Books, November 10, 1977;

"White Males Fight Back on Minority Job Programs", New York Times November 24, 1977;

Statement on Affirmative Action. The United States Commission on Civil Rights, Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C., Oct. 1977.