In the end, he said, no black applicants were turned away for any reason.

In his 10 years there he said he had never seen a black applicant.

"We are pretty clear that this policy is having a positive impact on black applicants," he said.

Now it was to persuade them to give a black applicant a hearing.

Captain Washington said that black applicants often tended to end up at the bottom.

But among black applicants with similar transcripts, 22 out of 27, or 81 percent, were offered admission.

Three of the 21 farms were awarded to black applicants.

On scores alone, the school would have admitted nine black applicants to its entering class of 500 students.

The company acknowledged that the 117 black applicants had paid more.

"And yet my colleagues seemed struck by that quality in black applicants."