Impacts of Diversity Policies on United States' Higher Education

American society is very diverse in its nature. One aspect of its diversity is higher education, which includes students from different races, gender, ethnic groups and socioeconomic backgrounds. The Civil Rights Act (1964) legally ended racial segregation in schools, and provided African Americans, and other excluded groups, the right to equal access to education. Accordingly, several policies, as well as federal acts and programs, were established to reinforce and promote diversity in higher education such as; the Affirmative Action (1961-1965), and the Higher Education Act (1964). However, these policies have been faced with several obstacles and challenges at the stage of implementation. The purpose of this paper is to identify these policies, along with their role in providing more diversity, and equality education to students from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds.