when we look at the reagan presidency, he had more than elizabeth dole. he had more conservative advisors as well. this appeared to manifest itself in supreme court nominations that reagan made. ultimately, while the reagan administration continued to support, you know, business support for african-american entrepreneurship, his supreme court nominees ended up ultimately helping to undermine these programs. a landmark case in this regard was the case that involved an initiative in the city of richmond that allocated a certain proportion of public works projects to minority contractors. the supreme court, with these new reagan editions, in fact, declared that the city of richmond's policy was unconstitutional. six years later, with the addition of grant's -- clarence thomas, the supreme court declared that the transportation department initiative that allocated work to minority contractors, that that was declared unconstitutional as well. with the reagan administration, he had the interest in the economy, where is his administration actually promoted the e

the evidence suggested one of the motivations for that was the influence of elizabeth dole who was the head of the white house office of public a liaison during the period. and some of what i have seen suggested that dole, you know, approached president reagan saying that, you know, there's a sentiment out there that you're pretty much very anti-african-american and by continuing to support, you know, african-american entrepreneurship, that that might help dispel the notion that you're totally against, you know, the aspirations of the african-american community. and also, too, it appears that reagan on a personal level, you know, believed in the free enterprise system, so it wasn't a problem in terms of promoting programs to support african-american entrepreneurship. but when we look at the reagan and the reagan presidency, he had more than elizabeth dole in his every, he had more conservative advisers as well. and this appeared to manifest itself in supreme court nominations that reagan made. and ultimately, while the reagan administration continued to support, you know, business supp