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22 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 179 (1988-1989)
Affirmative Action on Law Reviews: An Empirical Study of Its Status and Effect

handle is hein.journals/umijlr22 and id is 189 raw text is: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION ON LAW REVIEWS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF ITS STATUS AND EFFECT Frederick Ramos* In its first seventy-three years of existence, the Virginia Law Review never had a black member. In an effort to eradicate this perceived injustice, the Review adopted in 1987 an affirmative action plan designed to increase minority membership.' It in- vited third-year student Dayna Bowen Matthew, a black, to be a member. Matthew's admittance onto the Virginia Law Review was not a result of the affirmative action plan.2 Two other black classmates, however, were invited to become members as a result of the affirmative action plan.3 In this respect, the plan was suc- cessful; blacks had finally broken the barrier of what has been described as a white institution-the law review.4 Matthew's response to her and her black classmates' admit- tance and the implementation of the affirmative action plan shed doubt on the plan's purported success. She explained: Af- firmative action was a way to dilute our personal victory. It took the victory out of our hands. I see this well-intentioned, liberal- white-student affirmative-action plan as an intrusion.' The controversy that arose in response to the affirmative ac- tion scheme at the Virginia Law Review was not new. When the * Note Editor, 22 U. MICH. J.L. REF. (1989). B.A., Columbia University, 1986; J.D. candidate, University of Michigan, 1989. The author would like to thank James Walker, chairman of the 1988 National Confer- ence of Law Reviews, and Allan T. Stillwagon, Assistant Dean and Admissions Officer of the University of Michigan Law School, for their help with this survey; and Susan M. Eklund, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Operations at the Law School for pro- viding funds for this research. Of course, the author takes sole responsibility for any mistakes in this Note. 1. Lorey, Law Review votes for affirmative action, Va. L. Weekly, Feb. 6, 1987, at 1, col. 2. 2. Graves, Matthew becomes first black on Review, Va. L. Weekly, Feb. 20, 1987, at 1, col. 4. Matthew became a member of the Law Review when the publication accepted a note she had written on her own. Id. 3. Raspberry, Law Review Policy Hurts Black Students, Det. News, Mar. 1, 1987, at 23A, col. 3. 4. Lack, Challenge to the White, Male Legal Establishment, N.Y. Times, Mar. 9, 1981, at A22, col. 2 (letter to the editor). 5. Raspberry, supra note 3.

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