Perpetual Mapping

In March l961, less than two months after assuming office, President John F: Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Its mission was to end discrimination in employment by the government and its contractors. The order required every federal contract to include the pledge that "The Contractor will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin. The Contractor will take affirmative action, to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.

" Non-construction (service and supply) contractors with 50 or more employees and government contracts of $50,000 or more are required, under Executive Order 11246, to develop and implement a written affirmative action program (AAP) for each establishment. The regulations define an AAP as a set of specific and result-oriented procedures to which a contractor commits itself to apply every good faith effort. The AAP is developed by the contractor (with technical assistance from OFCCP if requested) to assist the contractor in a self-audit of its workforce. The AAP is kept on file and carried out by the contractor; it is submitted to OFCCP only if the agency requests it for the purpose of conducting a compliance review (USBLS). In other words, affirmative action was instituted to insure that applicants for positions would be judged without any consideration of their race, religion, or national origin.

Although affirmative action has seldom been mandated by law, administrative regulations and judicial rulings have often lent this policy the force of law. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Office of Federal Contract Compliance, which ensured that private businesses who did work for the federal government followed non-discrimination requirements. With this, a large block of the American economy adopted affirmative action. Under the Federal Guidelines of 1971, statistical representation became the litmus test of discrimination.

On a more local level, most states have Fair Employment Practice Laws and civil rights agencies that enforce them. Among the damages that can be awarded