Title VII and the private sector origins of affirmative action: 1964--1996

This project locates and analyzes the overlooked origins of private sector affirmative action among private-sector employers, challenging widely accepted beliefs about the origins of race-conscious employment decisions. Scholars generally assume that all affirmative action had governmental origins. Affirmative action policies adopted by federal contractors and public colleges were government products, but this was not the case in private employment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not cause the use of affirmative action in the private sector workplace. Rather, large, powerful "center" firms voluntarily adopted affirmative action in response to their needs for predictability in human resources, marketing to minorities and women, defense against allegations of discrimination, publicity, and a desire to be good corporate citizens.;Private sector affirmative action developed over three periods. The first was from Title VII's enactment in 1964 through changes in the law in place by 1973, when affirmative action was rare in the private sector. In the second period, from 1973 to 1981, government joined business in supporting affirmative action, and affirmative action became common. In the last phase, from 1981 to 1992, government efforts to curtail private sector affirmative action failed because private sector affirmative action was a private business priority.;Although inequality remained, whatever progress in racial and gender diversity was made in the private sector workplace was mostly due to the efforts of employers.