Harvard Under Fire: Experts Warn Alumni Affinity Events Could Be Illegal Race-Based Segregation

This comes as a result of the university's alleged use of its resources to endorse the Harvard Black Alumni Society and its associated events, according to legal experts who spoke to The Washington Free Beacon.

The Harvard Black Alumni Society, a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening the university's black community and enhancing black student enrollment and faculty recruitment, recently organized a series of "intimate gatherings" as part of its "Harvard on the Vineyard" series.

August 18, 2025

The events included a "Black Ivy Happy Hour Mixer" and a cocktail reception graced by Supreme Court justice and Harvard Law School alumna Ketanji Brown Jackson. The reception was named in honor of the founder of Harvard Law's Institute for Race and Justice.

The university's website featured all of the weekend's events. In fact, the entire website of the alumni group is hosted on the university's "harvard.edu" domain, prominently displaying the university's logo and providing links to various Harvard websites, including the official Harvard Alumni Association, with which the society is affiliated. The association's site, also on the "harvard.edu" domain, offers detailed information about the society and actively promotes its events.

Legal experts have raised concerns that this could place Harvard in violation of the Civil Rights Act. Despite the Harvard Black Alumni Society being a separate entity, the university's promotion of the race-based group and its exclusive events could be problematic.

William Jacobson, a Cornell Law School professor and founder of the Equal Protection Project, told the Free Beacon, "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. 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, concurred with Jacobson's assessment. She stated, "So long as it accepts taxpayer money, Harvard and its affiliated groups have to abide by civil rights law. That means it can't divvy people up based on race."

Boden further explained that the alumni society's claim of independence from Harvard doesn't exempt it from civil rights law. If the group behaves as part of the schoolutilizing its domains, receiving promotion or funding, or anything suggesting it's a Harvard programit cannot discriminate either.

Sheryll Cashin, a law school professor and Harvard Law alumna, seemed to acknowledge these legal challenges in a LinkedIn post. After a senior official in the Department of Justice questioned Harvard's role in the event, Cashin deleted the comment and her parenthetical.

William Trachman, general counsel for the Mountain States Legal Foundation, interpreted Cashin's deletion as an attempt to hide evidence. He stated, "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."

Harvard is currently on the brink of 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. 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.

Legal experts also suggested 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. Jacobson stated, "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."

Cashin, however, defended the events by referencing outside funding, arguing that no one was excluded because of their race. She 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."

Despite the controversy, the Harvard Black Alumni Society is set to host four more events on Aug. 20 as part of its "Harvard on the Vineyard" series. Neither Harvard nor the society responded to requests for comment. The ongoing debate underscores the importance of upholding civil rights law, even within the hallowed halls of esteemed institutions like Harvard.