Emergence of a Policy

I have dedicated my Administration to the cause of equal opportunity in employment by the Government or its contractors. TheVice President, the Secretary of Labor and the other members ofthis committee share my dedication. I have no doubt that thevigorous enforcement of this order will mean the end of suchdiscrimination.

This statement was made by President Kennedy on March 6, 1961,when he announced the issuance of Executive Order 10925 1 "to ensurethat Americans of all colors and beliefs will have equal access to employment within the government, and with those who do business with thegovernment." 2 The order provided for establishment of the President'sCommittee on Equal Employment Opportunity with responsibility foreliminating discrimination in employment both by the Federal Government and by Government contractors, and for obtaining cooperationin the implementation of a nondiscriminatory employment policy fromthose labor organizations whose members are engaged in work on Government contracts. Thus, for the first time in 15 years responsibilitywith respect to employment by the Federal Government, employment byGovernment contractors, and the practices and policies of labor organizations has been centralized in a single committee, and this committeehas been provided with machinery to enable it to effectuate a policy ofequal employment opportunity. To this extent Executive Order 10925is, as many officials have declared, 3 a landmark in the history ofefforts of the Federal Government to eliminate discrimination in employment financed, in whole or in part, by Federal funds.

Significant as it is, the order appears to have limited application.As is discussed more fully elsewhere in this report, 4 equality ofemployment opportunity cannot be achieved merely by eliminating discrimination in hiring. To be considered for jobs on a nondiscriminatorybasis members of minority groups must first have equal opportunitiesto obtain training and to apply for jobs. Yet Executive Order 10925does not on its face purport to affect training and recruitment servicesprovided through the use of Federal funds. Nor does it explicitlyapply to all federally-financed employment.

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One of the major methods of Federal subsidization of employment isthrough the grant of Federal funds to State and local governments, topublic institutions, and to private nonprofit institutions for specificprograms or activities.5 Yet employment so created does not appearwithin the scope of Executive Order 10925. Nor has there been anyrecent, overall Federal policy with respect to discrimination in employment created by grant-in-aid programs. Despite the clear authority ofthe Federal Government to attach nondiscriminatory conditions to the useof these funds2014approximately $7.5 billion in fiscal 1961 62014such actionhas been taken only on a piecemeal basis. As a result the present Federal policy with respect to nondiscrimination in employment varies considerably from one grant program to another.7 By the same token therehas been no recent uniform Federal policy with respect to nondiscriminatory administration of training and recruitment services that are undertaken with Federal grants.8

Although there now exists no overall Federal policy with respect to

nondiscrimination in recruitment, training, and in all employment supported by Federal funds, this has not always been so. In fact, untilJune 28, 1946, when the Second Fair Employment Practices Committee 9 terminated its activities, there had been developing a rather welldefined pattern of Federal action, both legislative and executive, aimedat achieving the goal of equal employment opportunity. Such actionwas not only directed at all those Federal programs which create employment opportunities, including the Federal Civil Service, the ArmedForces, Government contracts, and grant-in-aid programs, but alsoaffected labor organizations and federally-financed training and recruitment programs. Underlying all such action were two basic concepts:the right to equal treatment, and the necessity of avoiding the economicand social waste of human resources resulting from discrimination inemployment.

FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT POLICY

To 1933

It was primarily in the interest of governmental efficiency, in fact,that Congress first adopted the principle of "merit employment"in the Civil Service Act of i883.10 By prohibiting discrimination basedon political affiliation, Congress hoped to eliminate the "spoils system"and the concomitant confusion and inefficiency resulting from the wholesale dismissal of trained and competent civil servants with each changeof administration. One of the first regulations issued pursuant to this

act outlawed religious discrimination. 11 A 1940 Civil Service rule prohibited racial discrimination as well. 12 By 1940, when the RamspeckAct 13 was passed, extending the coverage of the Civil Service Act andamending the Classification Act of 1923, Congress had adopted thephilosophy of "equal rights for all" in Federal Classification Actemployment: 14

In carrying out the provisions of this title, and the provisions of the

Classification Act of 1923, as amended, there shall be no discrimination against any person, or with respect to the position held byany person, on account of race, creed, or color.

The New Deal period

The origin of the policy of equal opportunity in employment and training created through Federal funds lies, however, in action taken by theexecutive and legislative branches of the Federal Government duringthe early New Deal period. And this policy extended not only to directFederal employment and employment by Government contractors, butto employment and training opportunities provided by grant-in-aidprograms as well. When President Roosevelt took office on March 4,

: 933> the country was in the depths of the great depression. Previousrecovery efforts had been confined largely to "credit expansion measures." " These were of limited effect. By March 1933, unemployment had increased from 10 million in early 1932 to almost 15million, 18 and the index of industrial production had dropped from64 in December 1932, to an all-time low of 56." One-third of theNation's railroad mileage was in bankruptcy, farm and home mortgageforeclosures were widespread, and by Inauguration Day almost everybank in the country had closed. 18

Among the problems confronting the new administration, widespread

unemployment2014particularly among Negro workers2014and a generally"sick" economy required immediate attention. The New Deal plan wasto stimulate recovery by "pump priming," that is, by creating jobs whichin turn would expand purchasing power. Accordingly, much of theearly New Deal legislation was enacted for the express purpose of creatingwork, whether by direct Federal employment, employment by Government contractors, or by Federal grants to States and other public bodies. 19

And provisions were made, either by legislative or executive mandate,

that such opportunities would be available without...