VII.

Affirmative Action

The goal of civil rights activists from before the Civil War until the 1960s was to end legal discrimination, to achieve the ideal set out by Justice Harlan, that the “Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.” By the late 1960s, this goal had been achieved. However, it did not lead to radical changes in the socioeconomic condition of blacks. To remedy this condition, blacks began to demand affirmative action as a way of increasing black participation in the economy and the society.

In a speech in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson articulated the rationale for affirmative action: “You 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, ‘You are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” Thus, both President Johnson and President Richard M. Nixon established policies to guarantee that blacks and other minorities would in fact be hired by federal contractors. This led to various affirmative action programs to insure that blacks and other minorities had access to higher education and employment. These programs tried to encourage the hiring and promotion of minorities and women in order to counteract past and present discrimination. Affirmative action also included special educational programs and recruitment for these groups.

Affirmative action has been very controversial. Opponents call it reverse discrimination and argue that it gives a preference to people on the basis of their race. Supporters argue that past discrimination requires remedial measures and that without affirmative action blacks, Hispanics, and other minorities would have great difficulty moving into mainstream America.