out regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.ö The Civil Rights Act of 1964 codified the latter half of that statement into law, adding gender as another criteria that may not be considered by employers (Americans United for Affirmative Action).
That act greatly extended the federal governmentÆs reach by barring private employers from discriminating against women and minorities. By 1965, however, President Johnson made it clear that more needed to be done. He also used the term affirmative action, only he ascribed a far different meaning. In a commencement address, Johnson declared, ôYou do not take a person who for years has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, æyouÆre free to compete with all the others,Æ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. Thus it is not enough just to open the gates or opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk through those gates....We seek not...just equality as a right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality a
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