Civil rights and affirmative action: Hope or despair

1993 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-295
Author(s):  
Michael W. Hughey
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Civil Rights

A Changing Workforce

2020 ◽  
pp. 210-236
Author(s):  
Jennifer A. Delton
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Equal Opportunity ◽  
National Association ◽  
Historically White ◽  
Right To Work ◽  
Workplace Rights ◽  
National Association Of Manufacturers

This chapter examines the overlap between African Americans' demands for jobs and conservatives' push for “right to work” laws. While compulsory union dues were very different from unions' exclusion of blacks, both movements targeted historically white unions and shared a language of workplace “rights.” Conservative “right to work” activists adopted the tactics of the civil rights movement and aligned themselves with blacks against exclusionary unions. Although this strategy failed to attract African Americans, it called attention to unions' historic and ongoing racism in a way that eventually divided the labor–liberal coalition. This dynamic is key to understanding the National Association of Manufacturers' complicated support for civil rights, equal opportunity, and affirmative action.

THIRTY YEARS WITH AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan Glazer
Keyword(s):  
Affirmative Action ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Major Elements ◽  
Supported Housing ◽  
Institutions Of Higher Education ◽  
Ethnic Inequality ◽  
Black And White ◽  
School Busing ◽  
Publicly Supported ◽  
Race Preference

Affirmative Discrimination: Ethnic Inequality and Public Policy(1975) criticized government policies requiring goals and timetables from federal contractors in order to implement affirmative action, arguing that this opposed the clear language of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 aiming at a color-blind society, was unnecessary, and threatened a full-scale Balkanization in employment procedures. It also criticized school busing and nascent programs to require publicly supported housing to reach some statistical goal in proportions of Black and White. In time, the author changed his position, as indicated in the introduction to the 1987 edition ofAffirmative Discrimination. In particular, he saw the virtue and necessity of race preference in admission to institutions of higher education, recognizing the degree to which slavery and discrimination had placed blacks in a unique position of disadvantage, and the imperative for a democratic society to incorporate in its leading institutions all major elements of the population.

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