A History

Affirmative action in education has become a highly debated topic recently. Affirmative action was started as a way to compensate for the discrimination of minorities in education and employment. The idea behind it was that even if minority groups have equal rights, past discrimination has given them a disadvantage in preparedness for future opportunities.

Let’s start by taking a look at the history of affirmative action.

In 1865, African Americans were officially freed from the bonds of slavery by the Thirteenth Amendment; however their treatment would remain unequal for nearly a century after that.

In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower began a trend of executive orders and acts that prohibited discrimination in federal employment.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy coined the phrase affirmative action in an executive order that stated that government contractors “take affirmative action to ensure applicants are employed… without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” Although the phrase was used in regards to government hired contractors, such a statement summarized the general idea behind the order.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and another executive order which effectively banned discrimination of any sort (race, sex, religion, etc.) in employment and publics services. He is quoted with saying, “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 others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair.”

In 1971, the US Department of Labor issued guidelines that attempted to properly represent minorities in the work force, especially in government-sponsored programs.

And that brings us to the current status of affirmative action. It finds itself applied to education and businesses across the nation often seen under the term “equal opportunity establishment.”

Some of these organizations, especially schools, created a quota to fill when it came to accepting minority applicants. During the early years of affirmative action, this managed to get by under the idea of compensating for past injustices. However in 1978 in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a white student sued the school claiming the quotas prevented more qualified students from obtaining admission. The court found that using race as an admission factor was acceptable and this convention was held until 2003. That year, the Supreme Court found that affirmative action could no longer be justified as compensation for the injustices of the past, but could still exist for schools to maintain diversity.

People, often of the majority, find issues with affirmative action as it treats minorities with special care only because they are of a minority. In a way, such a program is a form of reverse discrimination. These supporters believe that an applicant should be considered based on their merits alone.

In light of this opinion, several states have banned affirmative action to promote the equal treatment of all. As of 2008, these states include California, Michigan, Washington, and Nebraska.