The Origins of Affirmative Action
by Marquita Sykes
Affirmative action, the set of public policies and initiatives designed to help eliminate past and present discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, is under attack.
· Originally, civil rights programs were enacted to help African Americans become full citizens of the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution made slavery illegal; the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection under the law; the Fifteenth Amendment forbids racial discrimination in access to voting. The 1866 Civil Rights Act guarantees every citizen "the same right to make and enforce contracts ... as is enjoyed by white citizens ... "
· In 1896, the Supreme Court's decision in Plessy v. Ferguson upheld a "separate, but equal" doctrine that proved to be anything but equal for African Americans. The decision marked the end of the post-Civil War reconstruction era as Jim Crow laws spread across the South.
· In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 which outlawed segregationist hiring policies by defense-related industries which held federal contracts. Roosevelt's signing of this order was a direct result of efforts by Black trade union leader, A. Philip Randolph.
· During 1953 President Harry S. Truman's Committee on Government Contract Compliance urged the Bureau of Employment Security "to act positively and affirmatively to implement the policy of nondiscrimination . . . ."
· The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy v. Ferguson.
· The actual phrase "affirmative action" was first used in President Lyndon Johnson's 1965 Executive Order 11246 which requires federal contractors to "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin."
· In 1967, Johnson expanded the Executive Order to include affirmative action requirements to benefit women.
· Other equal protection
laws passed to make discrimination illegal were the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Title II and VII of which forbid racial discrimination in "public accommodations" and race and sex discrimination in employment, respectively; and the 1965 Voting Rights Act adopted after Congress found "that racial discrimination in voting was an insidious and pervasive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of the country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution."
National NOW Times >> August 1995 >> Article
Laws Applying to Affirmative Action in Educational Institutions
Affirmative action programs are governed by a number of overlapping laws. A common principle is that whether for admissions or employment, affirmative action programs such as targeted recruitment and goals are encouraged to remedy past effects of discrimination; quotas are disfavored.
Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution
The "equal protection clause" of the Fourteenth Amendment, which applies only to public institutions, prohibits discrimination based on race or sex. According to recent U.S. Supreme Court cases decided under this provision, such as City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469 (1989), public employers' affirmative action programs must be justified by and narrowly tailored to remedy specific evidence of past discrimination.
Title Vl of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000d, and regulations at 45 C.F.R. §§ 80.1 et seq.
Title Vl prohibits race discrimination in any program receiving federal funds. This law applies to both admissions and employees. Violations can result in withdrawal of federal funds or suits by private individuals.
Cases brought under Title Vl, such as University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), establish that in an affirmative action context, race can be one of several factors used in admissions decisions.
Title Vll of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C.A. §§ 2000e et seq., and regu rations at 29 C.F.R. §§ 1604-1606, 1608.1 et seq.
Title Vll prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin by any employer with 15 or more employees; as amended in 1972 it applies to public and private educational institutions. Cases decided under Title Vl l authorize affirmative action programs that are "narrowly tailored" to remedy past discrimination based on race, sex, etc.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq., and regulations at 34 C.F.R. §§ 106.1 et seq., 45 C.F.R. §§ 86.1 et seq.
Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in all educational institutions that receive federal funding. Title IX's affirmative action provisions apply to both employment and admission of students. Violations can result in withdrawal of federal funds or suits by private individuals. Regulations promulgated under Title IX, 34 C.F.R. § 106.3, authorize affirmative or remedial action in instances in which members of one sex must be treated differently to overcome the specific effects of past discrimination.
Executive Order 11246, Sept. 24, 1965, as amended by Executive Order 11375, Oct. 13, 1967, 41 C.F.R. §§ 60-1 et seq.
Executive Order 11246 requires federal contractors to adopt and implement "affirmative action programs" to promote attainment of equal employment objectives. It authorizes use of goals but prohibits quotas, and applies to race, religion, color, national origin, and sex.
State Laws
Many states have laws that are similar to Title Vll or Title IX. In some instances, state laws provide broader remedies or more expansive coverage to protected groups.
List Prepared by NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.
aad.english.ucsb.edu/docs/Laws.html
It seems that affirmative action is a law to me.
