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BOB JONES UNIVERSITY APOLOGIZES FOR RACIST PAST: School says its policies were wrongly shaped by culture instead of Bible.
*Bob Jones University has issued an apology for its institution of racist policies, which included a one-time ban on interracial dating and a refusal to admit black students until 1971.
In a statement posted Thursday on its Web site, the fundamentalist Christian school - founded in 1927 in Greenville, South Carolina - says its rules on race were shaped by culture instead of the Bible.
"We failed to accurately represent the Lord and to fulfill the commandment to love others as ourselves. For these failures we are profoundly sorry," the statement said. "Though no known antagonism toward minorities or expressions of racism on a personal level have ever been tolerated on our campus, we allowed institutional policies to remain in place that were racially hurtful."
The university says president Stephen Jones decided to issue the apology because he still receives questions about the school's views on race.
The institution, which has about 5,000 students, banned interracial dating until 2000, when it became an issue during the Republican presidential primary. President George W. Bush was criticized in 2000 for a campaign speech at the school while the interracial dating ban was in place.
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