The Civil Rights Of African Americans - 2740 Words

As the United States put an end to slavery, and oppression of African Americans, the country needed aggressive policies to really end discrimination, and segregation. In several part of the country, African Americans were still considered as second class citizen. In the south, the social climate did not change. Many companies did not hire black at all. White southerners did not want integration in school or equal opportunity for black people. The federal government wanted to change the situation and to offer equal opportunity to all. During the 1950’s and 1960’s major changes in civil rights took place within the country. President Kennedy during his presidency came with major policies to alleviate people from poverty and to end†¦show more content†¦President London B. Johnson’s executive order 11246 became the standing rules for affirmative action for several decades in order to create fairness and equal opportunities in employment, and education . Affirmative Action was born and has been a public policy for five decades. The federal government made it mandatory for contractors to abide by the executive order and to apply it as requested. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to investigate complaints of discrimination and for correction of violations. The Department of Labor created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance (OFCC) (Anderson, 2004). All complaints were investigated; and violators were at risk of losing their federal contracts. Local and state governments joined the program as did private business. Today affirmative action becomes one of the most controversial subjects in the country, with as many supporters claiming it is equality, fairness, diversity, while opponents claim it is pure reverse discrimination. Proponent of affirmative action state it is needed for diversity in the work place, in our universities but those who oppose called it preference. In this paper, I will explore affirmative action, does it only benefit minorities (African Americans) or all races. Does affirmative action cause complex issues such as discrimination? Was there a significant increase in enrollment for minorities after Affirmative