A year ago, I articulated my feelings about the plight of black Americans as they look through the glass ceiling at positions of authority within intercollegiate athletics.

That article appeared in the April 28, 2003, issue of The NCAA News. My message then, and my message now, is that our nation and our profession do not fully understand the denial of opportunity that continues to exist for people of color. Black Americans must hack out hard-earned gains a piece at a time, much as our forebears had to hack row-by-row at the cotton fields of the South.

This fact struck me again three months ago as I was sitting at one of the NCAA Convention educational sessions. As NCAA Vice-President Ron Stratten directed a panel discussion about the lack of leadership opportunities for black Americans, I realized that Reconstruction is still a work in process.

I listened as Denise DeHass from the NCAA research staff detailed the same old poor statistics of black American head coaches and administrators. Others on the panel were Carlyle Carter of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and Floyd Keith of the Black Coaches Association. I listened intensely as they described the lack of upward mobility afforded to black Americans.

The discussion could have occurred in the 1950s as easily as 2004. Instead of Stratten, Carter and Keith, it could have been A. Philip Randolph or W.E.B Dubois or Medgar Evers pleading with the ruling class to allow opportunities for black Americans. Alas, it is not the 1950s but 2004, and the same issues are prevalent, real and profoundly sad.

It is reassuring that two schools in the deep South recently decided that the old battle cry of former Alabama Gov. George Wallace does not fit the present social agenda. We all remember those infamous words: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever." So congratulations to Mississippi State University and its new football coach, Sylvester Croom. Congratulations to the University of Georgia and its new athletics director, Damon Evans. The flags of Georgia and Mississippi still fly with symbols of the racist past, but it is encouraging to see institutions of higher education in those states be willing to do what is right. These appointments enhance the agenda of opportunity and provide a greater presence of black Americans in power positions within the NCAA environment.

In fact, the good in intercollegiate athletics exceeds the bad. As I fulfill my final year on the Division II Management Council, I have been blessed to meet a number of progressive individuals in the NCAA office and around the country who are qualified to lead and be dynamic athletics administrators.

But the gains do not come easily.

I recently heard former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young interviewed in conjunction with Martin Luther King Day. The journalist -- Tavis Smiley, I believe -- asked Ambassador Young about how we should regard Dr. King's dream that his children "will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Ambassador Young, who was as close to Dr. King as anyone, was quick with his response: We distort the dream of Martin Luther King when we omit equal opportunity as a necessary first step. Our society still fails to acknowledge how many black children live in broken homes that have been affected by unequal access to education, nutrition, health care and many other social benefits that most Americans take for granted. These children need the help that a caring and just society should provide.

The money, time and effort that will be required to fix our nation's social infrastructure will be immense. The commitment is so large that it should come as no surprise that we spend more time contemplating the situation than acting on it.

If you place that challenge alongside what we face in intercollegiate athletics, you can appreciate how easy we have it. We need only tend to the educational needs of the student-athletes for whom we are responsible and to provide equitable professional opportunities for those individuals who are qualified to benefit from them.

Through devotion and faith, there is a call to challenge the status quo to make change and provide opportunities for qualified individuals, regardless of race, creed or gender.

In the words of black American theologian James Cone: "Faith is the most powerful force in the world. It is the light people can't put out."

For all of us who truly believe in equality, the struggle continues.

Clyde Doughty Jr. is director of athletics at New York Institute of Technology and a member of the Division II Management Council.