Harvard May Be Violating Civil Rights Law By Promoting Black Alumni 'Affinity' Gatherings, Legal Experts Say

Harvard University appears to be violating civil rights law by using school resources to promote the Harvard Black Alumni Society and its events, legal experts told the Washington Free Beacon.

The Harvard Black Alumni Society, a nonprofit dedicated to bolstering the university's black community and boosting black student enrollment and faculty hiring, hosted a series of "intimate gatherings" over the Aug. 9 weekend as part of its "Harvard on the Vineyard" series. They included a "Black Ivy Happy Hour Mixer" and a cocktail reception attended by Supreme Court justice and Harvard Law School alumna Ketanji Brown Jackson and named in honor of the founder of Harvard Law's Institute for Race and Justice.

All of the weekend's events were promoted on Harvard's website. In fact, the alumni group's entire website is hosted by the university's "harvard.edu" domain, prominently features the university's logo and includes links to various Harvard websites, including the official Harvard Alumni Association, with which the society is affiliated. The association's site, meanwhile, also on the "harvard.edu" domain, provides detailed information about the society and actively promotes its events.

According to legal experts, that could put Harvard in violation of the Civil Rights Act, even though the Harvard Black Alumni Society is a separate entity, since it promotes the race-based group and its exclusionary events.

"I think that the use of the school website, the hosting on the school website, the promotion by the school, is probably enough to render this a Harvard program such that it would fall under the DOJ guidelines," William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of the Equal Protection Project, told the Free Beacon. "I think that clearly crosses a line. So I think that Harvard is responsible for things that it promotes and things that it facilitates. So I think this one looks like it's highly likely to be a violation of the Civil Rights Act."

Anastasia Boden, a senior attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, echoed that sentiment. "So long as it accepts taxpayer money, Harvard and its affiliated groups have to abide by civil rights law," she told the Free Beacon. "That means it can't divvy people up based on race."

"The alumni society can claim it's independent from Harvard, but if the group acts like part of the school—using its domains, getting promotion or funding, anything that suggests it's a Harvard program—it can't discriminate either. It can't dodge civil rights law by picking and choosing when it wants be a part of Harvard," Boden added.

One law school professor and Harvard Law alumna seemed to acknowledge the legal hurdles. In a LinkedIn post, that professor, Sheryll Cashin of Georgetown University, posted a photo of her and Jackson alongside the caption, "A delight to chat with 'The Lovely One' at a Harvard Law Black alumni reception on MV. (Yes, we are still allowed to gather in affinity if we raise the money for it.)." After a senior official in the Department of Justice commented on the post asking about Harvard's role in the event, Cashin deleted the comment as well as her parenthetical.

William Trachman, general counsel for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, described Cashin's deletion as an effort to conceal evidence.

"Given the fact that Harvard is actively promoting this event … the person who posted it probably had second thoughts about the fact that maybe this is an event that would catch the attention of a Trump administration that's very eager to enforce the law as it's written, and to ensure that schools, especially Harvard right now, are non-discriminatory," Trachman said.

"And if there were ever a school to be worried about right now, it's Harvard, given all of the anti-Semitism and DEI programming and general history of discrimination that has already drawn the attention of the administration," he added.

Harvard is reportedly nearing a $500 million settlement to resolve its ongoing dispute with the Trump administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to DEI initiatives and campus anti-Semitism. A key point of contention involves the Harvard Law Review and Harvard Law School, where the administration is investigating internal documents, first reported by the Free Beacon, revealing that editors at the Harvard Law Review use race-based criteria for selecting editors and articles for publication.

The Ivy League institution is also facing an investigation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding whether the school hires faculty based on race and sex.

Legal experts also told the Free Beacon that even if the Harvard Black Alumni Society events didn't explicitly discriminate against other races, they could still be considered a civil rights violation.

"Even if you don't physically bar somebody from attending on the basis of race, if you signal that an event or program is only open to certain races and in a way that is likely to dissuade others from attending, that also can be a violation," Jacobson said. Trachman agreed.

"Would a reasonable person be discouraged from attending?" he said. "Like, would they think, 'If I tried to come, I wouldn't be allowed?' As long as they're open to everybody, and it's prominently displayed, and you have something on the website that's meant to be read and reasonable thought, that says 'All are welcome.'"

Though Cashin attempted to sidestep those concerns in her amended LinkedIn post by referencing outside funding for the events, Jacobson argued that it doesn't matter if the society self-funds.

"Private funding does not insulate conduct from scrutiny, because if it's done using university promotions and hosted on a university server, it doesn't really matter where the money came from. As long as the university activity is enabling the conduct, that's enough to be a violation," he said.

Cashin told the Free Beacon she edited her post "because the questioning of Black people exercising their First Amendment rights of free association was joy killing."

"That is the only reason. Harvard University had no role in this event. No one was excluded because of their race," she said.

The Harvard Black Alumni Society is scheduled to host four more events on Aug. 20 as part of its "Harvard on the Vineyard" series.

Harvard and the society did not respond to requests for comment.

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