The History of Affirmative Action

The history of Affirmative Action

History

Affirmative Action is a set of policies, laws, executive orders and administrative practices that was put in place to correct the discrimination practices of a country that was founded out of discrimination. The wrongs of race

Executive Order 10925 - On March 6, 1961 President John F. Kennedy issued order 10925, which created a committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which mandates projects that is funded by the federal government has to adopted Affirmative Action which will ensure that the hiring and employment practices are free of racial biases. President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act July 2, 1964 (Rowen) and this reconstruction would be the so called beginning of equality in the United States, this prohibits all discriminatory biases based on race, national origin, color, and religion.

Executive order 11246 which was issued by President Lyndon Johnson to forces government contractors to take Affirmative Action to be enforced for the first-time. programs to overcome the effects of past societal discrimination by allocating jobs and resources to members of specific groups, such as minorities and women. On October 13, 1967 executive order 11246 was amended to add gender bias into the Affirmative Action Act.

The policy was implemented by federal agencies enforcing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and two executive orders, which provided that government contractors and educational institutions receiving federal funds develop such programs. The Equal Employment Opportunities Act (1972) set up a commission to enforce such plans.

The establishment of racial quotas in the name of affirmative action brought charges of so-called reverse discrimination in the late 1970s. Although the U.S. Supreme Court accepted such an argument in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), it let