There was a reason the HBCUs were created during segregation. Jews and Catholics denied admission to the Ivy Leagues created their own institutions, for example, Catholic University, Brandeis and Yeshiva.
Don’t forget Boston College, Georgetown, and Notre Dame. Three commie elite schools that all started out because Catholics weren’t getting into Harvard and Yale. These days, the WASPs are tripping over themselves to gain admission to these and other (so called, but these days not really) Catholic schools.
Yes, but one of the primary reasons in my opinion was to give a formal name to those entities that could be the sole focus of government contracting set-asides.