nt, and the business world; at some workplaces, white males held every job. Societal changes occurred at a glacial pace, if at all. Equality seemed a long way off.
That prompted a call for ôaffirmativeö action to create opportunities for all. President Kennedy first used the term affirmative action in a 1961 executive order that created a committee on equal employment opportunities. ôThe Contractor will take affirmative action, to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without 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 (AUAA, 1997).
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 was needed. 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 as a result.ö (AUAA, 1997).
President Nixon succeeded Johnson and followed LBJÆs lead. Nixon established minority hiring goals for contractors doing business with the government. The Nixon Administration took pains to state that their minority hiring policy involved ôgoalsö and not ôquotas.ö Regardless, the Administration clearly had reversed policy; now they were t...