The term “affirmative action” was first used in reference to employment laws. Employers would act affirmatively, which meant they would actively work to treat their employees fairly.
Many associate the origins of affirmative action with the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, or the Wagner Act. This act stated that employers who discriminated unfairly based on race would be forcedto take “affirmative action.” Most employers did not openly welcome the act, however the Supreme Court ruled the act constitutional in 1937.
In 1935, President Eisenhower passed Executive Order 10479, which created an anti-discrimination committee. President Kennedy built upon this in Executive Order 10925, in which he stated that employers should “…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.”
In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled that school boards were required to provide a clear plan to end segregation. With this, affirmative action began to move from employment into education, the realm in which the term is most commonly now used.
In 1974, the first Supreme Court case was heard regarding affirmative action. In Marco DeFunis v. Odegaard, Defunis, a white man, stated that he was denied admission to the University of Washington law school because the school had instead admitted minority students who he believed were less qualified. The case was not heard until DeFunis was already in his last year of law school, so the case was never ruled on.
In 1978, Allan Bakke, a white student who had twice been denied admission to the University of California Davis medical school, filed a lawsuit against the University. He did this using the justification that he had a higher GPA and MCAT scores than students accepted to the program. At the time, the medical program at UC Davis reserved 16 out of 100 spots for minorities. The Supreme Court ruled that these quotas were in violation of the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause. However, the Court did state that using race as a factor when evaluating applications could beneficially promote diversity in higher level education.
For decades, this ruling provided an outline of what was and was not permitted when it came to affirmative action. Racial quotas were not allowed, however race could and should be a factor in the admissions process.
However in 2003, in Gratz. v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court ruled that the usage of a point system by the admissions office (minorities received more points when a certain number of points meant admittance) was unconstitutional. This further specified what was and was not permitted regarding affirmative action.
These cases set the precedent and guidelines for affirmative action. In recent years, affirmative action has become a highly debated issue, and these precedents have been called into question countless times. In order to consider these arguments, it is important to acknowledge the deeply rooted history of affirmative action.
Hello Lav! I like the concept for this blog. I learned about affirmative action in high school, but there it was only a small part of a more long-winded history of the United States. I liked this post because it concisely summed up everything someone needs to know on the subject from start to (there is no end to a topic like this one, but a reasonable) finish. I hate when people view affirmative action as “minorities getting unfair treatment” because the whole reason affirmative action is necessary in the first place is because society has not allowed different groups of people to succeed. Historically, with slavery, and discrimination, some demographics have never been offered the same opportunities as their white counterparts. With historical context, one begins to see that affirmative action is not “unfair treatment,” but rather “rectification.”
Hey Lav, interesting post on the history of affirmative action. Your history was very detailed and thorough. It seems like you have great understanding on current legislation in this area. Although I’m unsure of it personally due to belief in equality, there is certainly a lot to debate and acknowledge. All in all, a comprehensive history.
It was very interesting to see how the rulings of the Supreme Court influenced the path of affirmative action in the United States. With a more conservative majority, it will be a hot topic to follow in future rulings going forwards and the prominence of support for affirmative action will likely be challenged soon. I thought the images really added a lot to the overall blog post and showed various generations fighting for the same issue.