Naval Academy Will No Longer Permit Student Sponsors to Specify Which Race They Prefer

For the past 30 years the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, has conducted a sponsors program where local families in the community provide a “home away from home” for students at the academy. Sponsors typically have the students over for dinner, take them on family outings, treat them to movies or sporting events, invite them to holiday functions, or just give them a place to get away for a weekend or overnight.

Until now sponsors could stipulate on the application form that they wanted a student of a particular race. After a request from the local chapter of the NAACP, the Naval Academy has now abandoned this practice. Sponsors may still request a student of a particular gender.

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