Ranking the Top Law Schools by Their Percentage of Black Students

scales_of_justiceThe study of law and the American legal system have played a major role in effort to promote racial equality in the United States. Yet, the Black percentage of all lawyers, judges, law school students. and law school graduates is well below the Black percentage of the U.S. population.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has always been particularly interested in assessing the status and progress of African Americans at the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities. We believe that educational equality will not exist until Blacks have achieved a proportionate level of enrollments at the schools that graduate the leaders of our society.

Therefore, here we show the percentage of Black students at the nation’s 15 highest-ranked law schools, as determined in the annual ranking published by U.S. News & World Report. At none of these top law schools do Black enrollments reach 9 percent. Harvard Law School ranks first with Black enrollments of 8.7 percent. The law schools with the two lowest percentage of Black students among the 15 highest-ranked schools are the University of California Berkeley and the University of Michigan. In both states, public law schools are prohibited by state law from considering race in admissions decision.

Below is a list of the top 15 law schools ranked by their percentage of Black enrollments. Data is reported by the law schools to the American Bar Association.

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Certainly eye-opening data! Would you expect that the fact that University of California Berkeley and University of Michigan are prohibited by state law from considering race in admissions decision is a factor contributing to their lower percent of black law students?

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