United States 1969

Synopsis

With the implementation of the Philadelphia Plan in 1969, President Richard M. Nixon's administration changed the federal government's stance on affirmative action. For the first time, a specific industry was required to articulate a plan for hiring minority workers. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson had identified affirmative action as necessary to redress the effects of racism. During their administrations, policies were created to facilitate both equal employment opportunities for African Americans and equal accommodations in the workplace. Yet the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had limited the type of remedies possible by forbidding any form of discrimination. This was interpreted to include preferential hiring, which was seen as compensatory discrimination.

Despite this limitation, the Nixon administration used the power of the federal purse to create specific hiring goals in the highly segregated construction industry. Designed by the Department of Labor during the...