es by taking racially neutral affirmative action steps. Black leaders, a century after the abolition of slavery, pointed to the unfulfilled promises of equality made during Reconstruction and the need to offer black people special treatment and moral compensation. Their demands to overcome the previous injustices visited on their race led to the hiring of blacks in substantial numbers, not only in the context of employment, but also in the areas of university and professional school admissions. This foreshadowed the terms "quotas", "goals", and "targets" that would be used to satisfy the numerical justification demanded.
By the end of the 1960s, signs of change became dramatically evident. School boards did not assign pupils by race to their schools. But, to the group of blacks who were taking judicial action against the school boards, working towards integration was an affirmative responsibility. Black leaders had become concerned with "racial balance"ùthe racial representation of blacks in every sector of life. In accordance with the idea of "equality" as stated in the Constitution, the idea of achieving racial balance emerged in other areas besides public schools. In the area of employment, conditions had been thought to have been satisfied when employers took racially neutral affirmative action steps.
In 1975, President Johnson issued an executive order to make
the legislative rights of "legal equality" and "equality as a right" become "equality as a fact" and "equality as a result": "The contractor will not discriminate against any employment because of race, color, religion, sex or national origin" (Eastland & Bennett, 1979, p. 132). In 1967, the Department of Labor issued regulations after Johnson's executive order, "An Affirmative Action Program":
An acceptable affirmation affirmative program must include an analysis of areas within which the contractor is deficient in the utilization of minority gro...