Political Quotes

“to that end, in 1965, President Johnson issued Executive order 11246, which required all employers with Federal contracts to file written affirmative action plans with the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, giving a Federal Government review of one-third of the private work force. Announcing his rationale in his famous ``to fulfill these rights'' speech at Howard University commencement, he stated: You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him to the starting line of a race and then say, ``You are free to compete with all others,'' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair. He recognized that merely outlawing discrimination and equalizing the law of competition was not enough. He called for ``equality as a result, not as a philosophy.'' In 1967 the order was extended to women. By the end of his administration, LBJ was mired down by the Vietnam War and unable to carry out his enforcement and promise of his economic justice agenda. Interestingly, it was under President Richard Nixon that the parameters of modern affirmative action programs were set.”