Why the Supreme Court Needs to Visit Cass High School
Doris Taylor Walls, a counselor at Detroit's Cass Technical High School, has a stuffed giraffe on her desk, a gift from a student. The girl's mother was a crack addict and her father left town, but she worked part time, earned honors grades and went on to college. Ms. Walls has helped students from crime-ridden housing projects and ones who wake at sunrise for a three-bus commute, but she has finally come up against a problem she can't do anything about. "I hate to even think about it," she sighs.

Cass Tech is a revered Detroit institution, the school Diana Ross attended when she lived in the nearby Brewster Projects and the alma mater of Detroit's current mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick. It is also the biggest feeder of African-American students to the University of Michigan, sending 50 to 80 a year.

Cass Tech's students may have the most to lose tomorrow, when the Supreme Court hears two cases that could end affirmative action in admissions at the University of Michigan. It is too bad that the justices will not be visiting Cass Tech before they rule. They could see not only some of the students whose futures lie in the balance, but the hollowness of the plaintiffs' central argument — that race no longer matters.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/31/opinion/31MON4.html