by Jon Sanders

About the author: Jon Sanders is a research fellow for the Pope Center for Higher Education Reform in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. He is also the editor of Clarion, a monthly journal on higher education published by the Pope Center.

At Duke University in November 1997, a group of students hanged from a tree a black doll bearing a sign that read “Duke hasn’t changed.” They also covered with black paint the nearby Class of 1948 granite bench. The site of the mock lynching was the gathering place for members of the Black Student Alliance, who had been planning a protest outside the office of Duke President Nan Keohane.

The identities of the perpetrators—evidently white racists—were unknown for nearly a week, and the campus reaction to the incident...