Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (Charles Rex Arbogast / AP Photo)

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a speech in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 25, 1965. (Stephen F. Somerstein / Getty Images)

Decades later, warring interpretations of one of King’s most famous quotes have fueled a culture war over the merits of affirmative action and diversity and inclusion efforts.

Students walking. (WTTW News)

Considerations start with getting admitted and continue with questions of an institution’s ongoing commitment to diversity and inclusion once students get inside the gates.

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. (WTTW News)
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The U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, a policy that withstood challenges reaching as far back as 1978. Now, higher education institutions wishing to achieve racially diverse student bodies have to find a new way forward.

Activists demonstrate as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on a pair of cases that could decide the future of affirmative action in college admissions, in Washington, Oct. 31, 2022. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite, File)
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The court's conservative majority overturned admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation's oldest private and public colleges, respectively.

People rally outside the Supreme Court as the court begins to hear oral arguments in two cases that could decide the future of affirmative action in college admissions, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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The Supreme Court wrestled with persistent, difficult questions of race Monday, debating whether to end the use of affirmative action in higher education.

The Supreme Court strikes down Texas abortion restrictions. Former Supreme Court clerks highlight the term's other blockbuster cases.

The Supreme Court punts a case on affirmative action in college admissions back down to the lower court. Read the decision.

It's the start of a new U.S. Supreme Court term. We look at what some of this year's biggest cases could be.