Eugenics/Affirmative Action

Eugenics Article:

http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/1796

The Germans and Nazis used eugenics as a racist pseudoscience to wipe away all human beings in the 1900s. The reasoning behind this was so that they could become a superior race and take over the world. In 1909, California ended up becoming the third state to adopt eugenic laws. Eugenics sterilized 60,000 Americans, and California eventually became considered the epicenter of the American Eugenics Movement. Before World War II, nearly half of coercive sterilizations were done in California, and after the war, the state accounted for a third of all surgeries.





Affirmative Action Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/17/education/walter-j-leonard-pioneer-of-affirmative-action-in-harvard-admissions-dies-at-86.html?ref=topics

Walter J. Leonard was a pioneer of Affirmative Action and died at the age of 86 in 2015 due to Alzheimer's. Leonard ended up designing an Affirmative Action formula for Harvard which allowed recruiters to take into account of race and ethnicity so that they could assemble a diverse student body in  1969. The Harvard formula has passed four decades of constitutional muster, though the United States Supreme Court. This new policy created by Leonard was a response to the people of Washington who said that the program at Harvard didn't meet the minimum federal standards. Dr. Leonard’s colleagues credited the endurance of Harvard’s affirmative action plan to his ability to navigate the demands of student civil rights protesters for immediate action with the practicalities of running a university.