How long has it been since a Jew was tossed into an Oven, but that is still used as an excuse to justify the bad behavior of Israel? (See, I was being nice and didn't call it the "Zionist Entity" that time. )
So let's look what happened AFTER slavery ended. They passed Jim Crow laws to keep blacks from participating in society. They passed anti-miscegenation laws to keep the racial groups distinct. (Unlike Brazil, which had no such laws and after slavery ended, the population blended). And this kind of shit continued up until the 1960's.
You can't erase 400 years of bad policy in a few decades.
Now, all that said, this argument over Harvard is a bit silly, because the vast majority of Americans- black and white - have no real chance of getting into Harvard. That Harvard and Yale dominate our political and business culture as much as they do is the problem here, not who actually gets in.
For someone of any race to say, "Boo-Hoo, I didn't get into Harvard, I'm going to have to settle for State University" is not a crisis.