Do We Still Need Affirmative Action?

Affirmative Action Approbation

Affirmative Action is a solution to the growing disparity of economic inequality between blacks and whites. Simply put, it is essentially a lawsuit , atonement of the transgressions of white slave owners, which have greatly contributed to this economic disparity. I have never benefited from affirmative action myself nor do, I know of anyone who has as well. Nevertheless, I do not think affirmative action is sufficient in terms of retribution, but it is a necessity and it is a start.
Civil rights programs, during the reconstruction era, helped African Americans become full citizens of the United States. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery. Emancipated slaves searched for families and jobs , most former slaves, without land or resources, became laborers.
Freed slaves were making progress-building schools , teachers’ trained and black politicians elected to office. However, these gains vanquished after southern whites took back political power. The Black Codes of 1865 was a unique attempt for white southerners to maintain the way of life prior to the civil war. Meaning that while slaves were free, they were restricted and opportunities limited.
The Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed equal protection under the law , which also meant to protect the rights of newly freed slaves in the South, limit the participation of ex-Confederate leaders in government , and guarantee the payment of debt. President Abraham Lincoln promised the freed slaves 40 acres and a mule. Nevertheless, President Andrew Johnson revoked that promise.
The Fifteenth Amendment forbids racial discrimination in access to voting . The 1866 Civil Rights Act guarantees every citizen “the same right to make and enforce contracts…as is enjoyed by white citizens…” The Ku Klux Klan was a white underground terrorist group, which created a wave of terror. Threaten violence, bullying , lynching, setting fire to buildings and murdering blacks. The KKK would not accept black people as equals. Their beliefs were that whites were superior to blacks and as a result, many blacks did not register to vote and kept away from white areas.
Blacks were entitled to receive the same public services as mandated by the “separate but equal” doctrine. In June of 1892, blacks were required to sit in a black-only railroad car. Homer Plessy arrested and thrown in a New Orleans jail, a black man, for sitting in a whites-only car. In one of the most shameful decisions ever issued by the United States Supreme Court, PLESSY V. FERGUSON. Segregation was insult enough, but the suggestion that such an oppressive policy was, in part, meant for an oppressed race benefit was galling in its dishonesty. Therefore, Homer Plessy lost his petition in the courts; Plessy would not receive equal treatment with whites in America.
President John Kennedy first used the term, “affirmative action”, in 1961. He required that all federal contractors "take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed… without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin." President Lyndon Johnson reinforced this obligation by Executive Order in 1965 by requiring “goals and timetables.” However, political pressure forced Johnson to retract this demand. Nevertheless, in 1969, President Richard Nixon revived the idea in the "Philadelphia Order" aimed at increasing minority membership in the city's construction trades, and in 1970, he extended the requirement to all private companies with a federal government contract.
Meanwhile, the courts were turning to the use of quotas in order to break racial barriers when other methods proved ineffective. For example, in 1970 Alabama State Troopers did not employ a single black trooper. A federal court ordered the state agency to develop a plan for the recruitment and hiring of African Americans. After Eighteen-months (18), still there were no black troopers. Therefore, the court ordered the hiring of one African American for every white trooper hired until blacks constituted 25% of the force.
Families pass their wealth down to their children . In turn, their hope is that their children will be successful and can pass wealth down to the next generation, and so on. Some white people understand the complexities of black people struggles in that racism manifests itself on many levels. Black people know that the system is compromising them in ways that they could never imagine. In an effort to right a wrong of the past treatment of blacks, various policies were enacted or created. The thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth amendments and other civil rights policies were to make blacks “whole” again.