National Journal has a good article about how much the issues in higher education have changed since the Bakke decision in 1978. The discussion is particularly timely inasmuch as the U.S. Supreme Court is now taking a new look at the constitutionality of affirmative action via the Fisher vs. University of Texas case.
The key difference between 1978 and now is that then hardly any minority young people went to college, today they do. The article says today's problem is that minority kids go to higher ed schools that have low prestige, and therefore produce low results for their graduates. Same poor result, different causes.
My sense is that 1978's problem was easier to solve than today's. The public schools in many locations have essentially no white kids in them, not just the inner city schools either. People keep segregating themselves whenever they can, even when it is darned difficult and expensive to do.
