Legal Concept of Affirmative Action

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads in part: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." It is this Amendment to the federal constitution that has laid the groundwork for affirmative action programs in government and in private industry.

This research examines the development of affirmative action policies in the United States over three distinct historical epochs. The first historical period under study is the mid-1930s during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The second period is the late-1950s through the 1960s, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education and running through the era of the civil rights movement. Finally, the development of affirmative action since the 1960s is analyzed for any indications of its future in American political life.

It is exceedingly difficult to assign an actual date to when the concept of affirmative action first emerged. This depends in large part on one's definition of "affirmative action." When defined in the modern sense of the term, affirmative action probably first began to develop as an American policy in the 1930s. Nevertheless, the legal and conceptual roots of affirmative action can be traced much f

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t to see the nation's war economy disrupted by racial conflict, issued an executive order that created the first Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC). The president ordered any business under defense contract with the federal government to cease discrimination in employment practices. Although the executive order did not establish any system of quotas, the very existence of the order--and a governmental agency to enforce the order-encouraged defense contractors to expand minority employment in their industries. (History has judged President Franklin Roosevelt as a leading civil rights president, as manifest in his anti-discrimination policies of the New Deal Economic Bill of Rights programs as well as his executive orders. It should be pointed out, however, that many scholars believe, with considerable evidence, that the real force behind the anti-discrimination movement in federal government came from the president's wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.) The first FEPC existed for about 18 months. A dispute arose over its loss of autonomy when the agency was transferred from the Office of Production Management to the War Manpower Commission. Several commission members resigned in protest, effectively bringing the work of the

Category: Government - L