In his new book, The Campus Color Line : The Presidents of College and the Fight for Black Freedom, which will be released later this month, Cole delves into the historic role of college presidents in desegregation, racist housing policies, freedom of speech policies, affirmative action, and more. When affirmative action programs in higher education were introduced, the Kennedy administration called on university presidents throughout the country – historically including black colleges and all-white or mostly white school directors – to take action. Cole talks about his new book about the role of college presidents in postwar segregation, racist housing policies, affirmative action, and student debates about freedom of speech. And in testimony before Congress and during lobbying sessions, including White House meetings with former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, college presidents were leaders in shaping housing policies and raising funds for urban renewal, which eventually led to the displacement of black communities across the country. And here are many initiatives that demonstrate our commitment to fighting black racism on university campus. “This is what it takes for current university presidents to think about speakers coming to the campus, and how we can create a campus atmosphere where a racist speaker will not want to come to the campus in the first place. He has traveled from North Carolina to Georgia, from Nashville, Tennessee to Syracuse, New York to Madison, Wisconsin to Austin, Tex. and beyond, he has researched university archives and interviewed historians to learn more about the role of university presidents in the development of racial politics and higher education in the years after World War II. It is important to remember that the relationship between campus and community, both historical and current, depends largely on the need for university presidents to see the neighboring community as an equal partner in education, not just as a financial benefit to the institution as a whole. A: As we look at the expansion and gentrification of neighboring university campuses that move long-term residents, especially in predominantly black neighborhoods, we must reflect on the history and role that university presidents have played in this area. And together, black and white school presidents have actively initiated a number of programs that address racial issues in America. R. But for three years, white university leaders were slow to abandon these early programs designed to help black universities because they clearly had the advantage and believed that white universities would be better served by these programs with more resources. I began looking at North Carolina in the 1960s because the dominant history of student activism and university presidents – especially at lunchtime – begins with Greensboro. Racist admissions practices that benefit white institutions have slowly expanded, leaving programs originally designed to help a larger university system, a small number of white institutions. That’s a problem because “no college campus is immune to social history,” Cole said. In West Alabama’s rural area, in the black belt district, the public school system I went to was 100 percent black, but the district also had a private academy with a predominantly white population.