Brief History of Affirmative Action in Employment

"The purpose of affirmative action is to give our nation a  way to finally address the systemic exclusion of individuals of talent on the basis of their gender or race from opportunities to develop, perform, achieve and contribute. Affirmative action is an effort to develop a systematic approach to open the doors of education, employment and business development opportunities to qualified individuals who happen to be members of groups that have experienced long-standing and persistent discrimination." President Clinton 1999.

    I. Origins and Rationale

     A. THE history of federal affirmative action in employment, active action to promote fairness in hiring by the federal government and by defense contractors traces its origins in President Roosevelt’s Executive Order in 1941.

    1. The President issued an executive that barred hiring discrimination by defense contractors and established the Fair Employment Practices Committee.
    2.  President Roosevelt’s action was in response to A. P. Randolph's threat of A March on Washington.
    3. Mr. A. P. Randolph threat inclusion of qualified Black workers in defense industries.
    4. Presidents Truman and Eisenhower inherited and preserved The Fair Employment Practices Committee.
    5. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 ordering federal contractors to take "affirmative action" measures to achieve fairness in the workplace.
    6. In 1964, the Congress of the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited various kinds of racial discrimination: in public accommodations, discrimination in federally assisted programs, discrimination in employment and discrimination in labor unions.
  1. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 established an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and empowered this Commission to enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  1. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 permitted the US Congress to expand the authority of the Fair Employment Practices Committee and then rename it the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, henceforth EEOC.
    1. The Civil rights Act of 1964 authorized The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC )and The Department of Justice to sue violators of Title VII.
    2. Title VII calls for voluntary implementation of affirmative action plans.
    3. A valid affirmative action plan includes a systematic , comprehensive and reviewable effort to remove discriminatory practices in employment and labor unions.

 II. Some Key Developments in Affirmative Action in The United States

  1.  In 1960, Vice President Nixon urged President-elect John F. Kennedy to require
      something stronger than passive nondiscrimination to achieve equal employment
      opportunities
 
bullet   Passive nondiscrimination in employment refers simply to a pledge to use neutral standards in hiring, discharging (laying off), training and promoting employees. (Fullinwider 1980)
bullet  Passive nondiscrimination fails to be really nondiscriminatory, because the problem of discrimination goes beyond the level of conscious, explicit practices of discrimination.
bulletThe broader problem that still exists in America’s institutions is the legacy of many centuries of institutional habits, procedures, and reflexes, which have the effect of unnecessarily excluding Blacks and women and limiting their opportunities.   (Fullinwider 1980).

  1.  In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling in the case of Griggs vs. Duke Power Company requiring that employment qualifications must be related to the job in question and not designed simply to perpetuate exclusion (segregation).

  2. In 1973, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission won a discrimination suit against AT&T, and, as a result, AT&T agreed to pay $15 million to back pay and to award $23 million to pay raises to Blacks, other racial minorities and women who experienced discrimination.  

  3. In 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case of DeFunis vs. Odegaard, in which the plaintiff alleged that the affirmative action program at the University of Washington was admitting less qualified minorities.

  4. In 1978, in the case of Regents of the University of California vs. Bakke, the High Court ruled that a) race can be taken into account as one factor determining college admission policies b) but declared it unconstitutional for a state to set aside a specific number of positions for a designated group. 
    F. In the same year, Congress passed the Civil Service Reform Act, which calls for immediate development of a minority recruitment program to raise minority representation in specific federal jobs.

  5.  In Fullilove vs. Klutznick, 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that it was appropriate to use limited quotas or a small fraction of minority set-asides to correct past discrimination.

  6.   In 1981, the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan, announced that it would no longer demand that employers maintain affirmative action programs or that they hire according to numerical racial goals.1. The decision marked the beginning of more than a decade of nonenforcement of Affirmative  Action and anti-civil rights policy. 2. For example, the federal compliance program stopped requiring employers to report separately on their employment and promotion of African Americans, other racial minorities, and women.

  7. In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious hiring was permissible if and only if there was convincing evidence of past discrimination in any organization.

  8. In The City of Richmond v. J. A.. Croson (1989). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that state and local governments are limited in reserving a proportion of their business to minority contractors, unless these governments are correcting well-documented past cases of discriminating in the awarding of government contracts.
  9. In 1994, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit declared unconstitutional the University of Maryland's Benjamin Banneker scholarships for high-achieving Black students.
  10. L.  In 1995 four things that were relevant to Affirmative Action happened

  11.  1. In California two White scholars and a state legislature lead a ballot effort to prohibit the use of gender, race, or national origin as criteria for granting preferential treatment in hiring for public sector jobs, education, and in awarding contracts.

    2. In February 1995, each of the two Republican senators who are also presidential hopefuls, threatens to abolish federal affirmative action programs if elected President of the U.S..

    3. In March 1995, President Clinton orders a review of federal affirmative action programs and expresses intent to protect those AA that work and abolish those that don't.

    4. On July 19, 1995 President Bill Clinton delivered a speech in which he endorsed affirmative action.

  12. a. The President's central message was: "Mend affirmative action but don't end it." (Time, July 31, 1995).

  13. b. In a Time/CNN poll taken after the speech, 65 percent of those questioned said AA should be mended and just 24 percent said AA should be ended (Time, July 31 1995).

    c. On the same day, July 19 1995 President Bill Clinton sent a memorandum on affirmative action to all heads of Executive Departments and Agencies.

    d. In his memorandum on affirmative action President Bill Clinton (1995) asked all Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies:

    bulletTo  eliminate or reform any AA program that "creates quotas, creates preferences or unqualified individuals, creates reverse discrimination, or continues even after its equal opportunity purposes have been achieved.
    bulletTo keep affirmative action programs that do not violate the policy principles he spelled out.    

O.    In November 1996, the majority of California residents voted in favor of a proposition that prohibits the use of gender, race, or national origin for granting preference in hiring for public sector jobs, education and in awarding business contracts.