Remembering an Affirmative Action Family Legacy in Davis

By Norbie Kumagai, retired governmental affairs consultant and son of Dr. Lindy Kumagai, and Melissa Moreno, Ph.D., CCC Ethnic Studies faculty, UC Chicana/o Studies lecturer, and consultant. 

This summer of 2023, the US Supreme Court overturned the 1978 Bakke decision a precedent that laid the foundation for the use of race as one factor in many in admissions decisions in higher education.  For nearly five decades, affirmative action became an important tool to diversify institutions of higher learning across the nation.

Bakke is also a U.C. Davis story. Bakke involved a challenge to efforts by the UC Davis Medical School early after its founding in 1966 to diversify the doctors it graduated. Then and now, very few medical doctors in California looked like their patients. The UC Davis Medical School sought to change. Behind these efforts were several visionary leaders, among them was Dr. Lindy F. Kumagai, M.D., legacy for the nation. He was at the forefront to defend California affirmative action in 1978 at the University of California (UC).

Dr. Kumagai, a father of three, was a citizen of Davis, California and the University of California Medical School Director at UC Davis who fearlessly and successfully pushed back against Bakke who attempted to eliminate affirmative action altogether. The case first went through the county courthouse in Woodland, California, and then to the US Supreme Court who decided to uphold affirmative action and to make quotas unconstitutional.

Dr. Kumagai was born and raised in Rock Spring, Wyoming, where his father was a coal mining laborer. Then his parents moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to start a restaurant when he was in high school. There he met his wife, whose family had been forced to move along with many other West Coast Japanese Americans to Topaz, and then settled in Utah.

The Kumagai family created a sense of belonging in the Japanese Christian Church, which was across the street from the Buddhist Temple. This community was only one of eight in the entire nation, and were hubs of support for Japanese families after World War II. With community and family support, Dr. Kumagai earned his degree from University of Utah, and completed his residency in Boston at Mass General, and then returned to Salt Lake City in summer of 1957.

In August of 1969, Dr. Kumagai, came from the University of Utah School of Medicine to join the faculty at UC Davis as a professor of internal medicine, endocrinology. Dr. Kumagai came with the understanding from the dean of the school of medicine, Dean John Tupper M.D., that he would create a special admissions program, affirmative action, to diversify the faculty and student population of the school of medicine. Back then, UC Davis agreed to reserve 16 out of every 100 spots for qualified minority students.

In 1978, when student Allan Bakke applied for admission to the school of medicine and was denied, Dr. Kumagai was the chair of the admission’s committee. When Bakke applied for a second time and was denied, Dr. Kumagai still served on the committee. Bakke did not qualify for any of the 84 spots, and claimed had higher test scores than one of the applicants in the 16 spots, for people of color and white women, that had been admitted.

Bakke, a son of a lawyer, chose to sue the University of California Board of Regents. The lawsuit originated in the superior court of Woodland, California, in Yolo County. Eventually, the case made it to the US Supreme Court. Solicitor General Archibald Cox was retained to plea the case for the US Supreme Court; he was famous for Watergate when he was fired by President Richard Nixon.

Cox asked Dr. Kumagai to travel to Washington D.C. to brief his legal staff. He rejected this offer, and requested that Cox’s team come to UC Davis and the UC Davis School of Medicine to get a firsthand experience and feel for the community. Cox accepted.

Dr. Kumagai took Cox on a tour of the court in Woodland, the City of Davis, School of Medicine at UC Davis, and the Medical Center in Sacramento to provide solid context and evidence from which to better advocate for the case. Later Cox sent Dr. Kumagai copies of the brief for the pleading signed and autographed for each of his sons, who were still in high school. According to Dr. Kumagai’s family, he did not really talk about the case. He was immersed in his teaching, going to the hospital, and going to court for two years nonstop. 

Many years later when former UC Davis Chancellor Vanderhoff was in the process of retiring, he held a gathering at College Park with neighbors. There the chancellor, remembering Norbie’s father for pushing back against Bakke, standing up for Affirmative Action, and helping start the Paul Hom Asian Health Clinic in Sacramento, told Dr. Kumagai's son, Norbie, “Your family has a proud legacy.”

Dr. Kumagai is remembered by many, especially in Yolo County. This includes Shelton Yip, Carl Jorgenson, Floyd Mori, Marty West, Helen Thomson, UC Davis Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Leon Mayhew, Fujimoto family, Jann Murry Garcia, Jorge Garcia, Barton L. Wise, and many others. Carl Jorgenson, now retired UC Davis Sociology Professor, served on academic affairs committees with Dr. Kumagai supporting the emergence of ethnic studies departments at the time.

Dr. Kumagai had a close relationship to Asian American Studies and worked closely with its founder Professor Isao Fujimoto. Together they strongly advocated for having community service recognized as part of the tenured evaluation process and criteria. From 1978 to 1979, together with Professor Roy Doi, Dr. Kumagai argued the case for Professor George Kagiwada’s tenure in 1978. The spokesperson for Kagiwada’s committee was a UC Davis law school student Bill Tamayo, who was mentored by Dr. Kumagai and familiar with the importance of Affirmative Action. Later, Tamayo dedicated his life to affirmative action when becoming a US Employment Opportunity Commission Attorney.

Affirmative Action programs at the University of California ended in 1998. From 1969 to 2007, Dr. Kumagai did his best to support thousands of medical students of color, including securing fellowships for Dr. Jann Murray Garcia and Jorge Garcia, who are regarded as top medical social justice leaders in the nation. When Dr. Kumagai passed away of cancer in 2007, former Supervisors Mariko Yamada and Helen Tomson closed the meeting in his honor. Sacramento City Council Leaders Dave Jones and Roger Dickson created a resolution in his honor as well.

According to Shelton Yip, Yolo County Board of Education Trustee, “Dr. Kumagai was a mentor and advocate for all students at UCD before the Bakke case surfaced. He was there for the students from all of the affinity groups, Asian American Studies, Black Studies, Chicano Studies and Native American Studies. Every summer we had high school students from different communities attend via Upward Bound. His message was always clear to the students. ‘No matter where life takes you, don’t forget where you came from and always represent your community.’”

Also Floyd Mori, past national president and chief administrative officer for the Japanese American Citizens League, says “Dr. Kumagai was a longtime family friend of my older brothers. That friendship has carried for generations. Significant was his commitment and advocacy for his community. His spirit of family broadened to all he touched.”

Today, in this time in history, many have benefited from Affirmative Action, including white women married to white men. Affirmative action was not perfect, as UC Davis School of Law Dean Kevin R. Johnson reminded us, we need innovative thinking with the end of race-conscious admissions and hiring. Dean Johnson has spearheaded the UC Davis School of Law’s diversification goals for both its student body and majority-minority faculty composition, making it among the most diverse law schools in the nation. Its incoming class of 2023 was composed of 61% women and 49% students of color. The UC Davis School of Medicine has also made efforts to diversify their student body. Under the direction of Dr. Mark Henderson, the school has developed the socioeconomic disadvantage scale (S.E.D) as a tool to become one of the most diverse medical schools in the country. These initiatives provide hope for diversification efforts in schools that better represent our diverse society.

Yet, Dr. Kumagai's historical legacy in Native, Black, Indigenous and People of color communities is still important to remember. Gratitude for Dr. Kumagai’s courage and fire; grateful to the work and care of his wife Hisa Aoki Kumagai, three sons, and the social, cultural and political community he created. The continuation of Dr. Kumagai’s legacy is still needed in education, culture, and society.

About the Authors:

Norbie Kumagai is a retired governmental affairs consultant in the City of Lakewood/North Beach and Brea, California (North Orange County). Norbie is a proud Davis High School Alumni of 1975 and he currently lives with his wife Debbie Mayhew in Central Davis.

Melissa Moreno, Ph.D., is an ethnic studies faculty, leader, and consultant. Dr. Moreno is a proud affirmative action admit to the University of California and University of Utah.