The history of college desegregation and federal funding to higher education is reviewed. Both the Morrill Act of 1890 and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 fused the issues of federal aid and racial discrimination in higher education. Although the basic legal standards formulated in the decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka and the 1977 Amended Criteria for Acceptable State Higher Education Desegregation Plans remain in place, the extent to which the legal right can be exercised is crucially dependent on the kind and level of federal involvement. The federal government not only has defined the constitutional requirements and assumed responsibility for their enforcement, but has also affected the degree to which black colleges may offer high quality programs for all students and the extent to which black students may take full advantage of opportunities in public higher education. It is suggested that by examining the past interaction between college desegregation and federal aid, those concerned with maximizing educational choices for all students may be better able to consider legislative and judicial strategies for the coming decade. It is suggested that while vastly improving the access of low-income minority students to higher education, federal aid has yet to alter significantly the institutional aspects of desegregation with which the executive branch and the federal courts have also been concerned. Before the Brown decision in 1954, the executive branch was involved in the related issues of college segregation and federal aid in two ways: administration of the land-grant statutes and collection of information on institutions of higher education receiving federal appropriations. The developments resulting from the Adams v. Richardson suit, the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Education Amendments of 1972, and other legislation and cases are reviewed. (SW)