Enter your email address below to receive our free bimonthly newsletter
Did we make a difference?
The Foundation for Law, Justice and Society (FLJS) is an independent not-for-profit institution that aims to promote an understanding of the role of law in society. We identify and analyse issues of contemporary interest and importance, disseminating the insights of decision-makers and experts to a global audience through our extensive online resource of free-to-download Policy Briefings, Opinion Pieces, and multimedia podcasts.
We want to keep our content free at the point of use to all. If you value our work and are able to support it, please make a contribution to enable us to fulfil our educational aims into the future.
Affirmative Action
The 1960s was a decade of racial progress in the US, but also of anger that not more was achieved. One response to the civil unrest in America’s cities was an executive order issued by President Johnson requiring firms contracting with the federal government to implement affirmative action to increase the employment of African Americans.
In recent years, the Court has approved a new theory of affirmative action, which should not be based on past behaviour, rather on the promotion of diversity for the future. It applied it to college and university admissions. However, in 2007, it refused to apply it to voluntary actions by states and school boards, which wanted to set policies to promote racial desegregation below college level.
Looking to the future, other alternatives are, or should be, on the table. One is the possibility of substituting economic integration for race-based policies. This is being tested in a few school systems, and in some post-secondary contexts. The challenge for America more broadly is to commit to ending the continuing and disproportionate poverty amongst African Americans, and other minority communities. This is denoted the affirmative-action challenge of the twenty-first century.
