The GI Bill opened elite law schools to talented veterans regardless of class.

Evidence

Meanwhile, it became harder to get into law school. At the beginning of the century, Harvard already required a bachelor’s degree for admittance. Other schools gradually fell into line—​Stanford, for example, in 1924; George Washington in 1935. In the 1960s, the ABA and the Association of American Law Schools (AALS)required four years of college for everybody. The requirement, in short, became universal. After the Second World War, the GI Bill of Rights allowed thousands of bright young veterans to go to any school that accepted them. The government would pay for it all—​tuition, books, and living expenses. Elite schools were no longer only for elite people. Any veteran with brains could go to Harvard or Yale. Veterans made up over 90 percent of the Harvard class of 1947. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 4058

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: A federally employed black veteran was denied GI Bill housing loans — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 370; The GI Bill transformed postwar America yet largely excluded the million-plus returning black veterans — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 323; Local administration of the GI Bill guaranteed black veterans unequal benefits — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations: How Building a…, 323 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• The GI Bill’s benefits were systematically withheld from black veterans #contradicts (0.95) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 356
• Qualified black veterans were denied GI Bill mortgage guarantees that white veterans received #contradicts (0.90) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 370
• Jim Crow governments and FHA redlining excluded blacks from GI Bill benefits #contradicts (0.90) — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 50
• The GI Bill transformed postwar America yet largely excluded the million-plus returning black veterans #contradicts (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 323
• Local administration of the GI Bill guaranteed black veterans unequal benefits #corroborates (0.85) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 323
• The GI Bill’s racial exclusions created the White middle class and widened inequality #complicates (0.85) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 918
• A federally employed black veteran was denied GI Bill housing loans #contradicts (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 370
• Black veterans faced higher unemployment and far lower GI Bill benefit uptake. #complicates (0.80) — Dorothy A. Brown, Getting to Reparations, 356