Questions about how student financial aid and the costs of attending college influence educational opportunity for diverse racial groups have lurked beneath the surface of the policy debates about higher education for decades. When the Higher Education Act (HEA) was passed in 1965, there was a general acceptance that the federal government had a role to play in equalizing educational opportunity. At that time, the civil rights of African Americans were a concern of the majority of Americans, as evidenced by the many Great Society programs of the period. However, since 1980, the federal commitment to need-based grants has contracted as a result of shifting political priorities (McPherson & Schapiro, 1991), if not as a result of a breakdown in the old consensus about equal opportunity. More recently, the federal courts have narrowed the acceptable remedies in desegregation litigation (St. John & Hossler, 1998) and have brought race into question as an explicit consideration in the awarding of student aid (Strope & Wells, 1998). In this article, the authors examine the role of the costs of college and student financial aid in promoting postsecondary opportunity for diverse groups. First, they examine theory and research that might inform an assessment of the effects of student financial aid on the educational opportunities for diverse racial groups. Then they describe their methods and present the findings. They used the financial-nexus model (Paulsen & St. John, 2002; St. John, Paulsen, & Starkey, 1996) to assess the effects of student financial aid on college choice and persistence by African Americans and Whites. Finally, based on these analyses, they consider the understanding of the relationship between financial aid and the educational opportunities of diverse racial groups that emerges from this study. (Contains 12 notes.)