Affirmative Action

Started under President Kennedy and expanded by President Johnson by Executive Order in 1965, decreeing that all federal government agencies must take "affirmative action." It has been controversial and some commentators have blamed affirmative action for causing the split in the liberal coalition that led American politics for much of the post-World War II period.

An early and perhaps surprising critic of affirmative action was the civil rights leader, Bayard Rustin. Rustin had been a key organizer of the March on Washington in August 1963 during which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. But in the mid-1960s, Rustin grew critical of some of the directions the movement was taking. In the Bayard Rustin Papers, students can examine Rustin's speeches and correspondence to get an interesting perspective.

"Affirmative Action in an Economy of Scarcity." Testimony of Bayard Rustin and Norman Hill to the Special Subcommittee on Education, U.S. House of Representatives. September 17, 1974.

Black Power and Coalition Politics by Bayard Rustin

Another contemporary perspective on the early years of African American can be found in Papers of the NAACP, Supplement to Part 23

Collections of presidential papers dealing with civil rights issues also contain documentation on affirmative. These include Civil Rights during the Nixon Administration Civil Rights during the Carter Administration.

Bakke v. Board of Regents Weber