Education: Bigots in The Ivory Tower

Racial, religious and sexual prejudice make a campus comeback

On the magnolia-lined grounds of the University of Mississippi last August, arsonists torched the first black fraternity house before its members had even moved in. At Memphis State University last fall, the Jewish Student Union was spray-painted with swastikas. Gay men and lesbians at the University of Texas at Austin have been pelted with rocks and beer bottles while participating in campus parades. At Temple University in Philadelphia, 130 undergraduates have formed a White Students Union dedicated to fighting affirmative-action programs and promoting "white pride."

Such signs of intolerance are all too common on America's college campuses. Two decades after the...

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