Civil Right Act of 1964 and EEOC, Essay Example

Through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 many oppressed Americans were given equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment. The government could no longer prohibit equal access to all citizens and could no longer deny equal access to citizens based on racial, ethnic or gender background. The Fourteenth Amendment also granted equal access to the courts through Due Process regardless of race, ethnic background and gender. This was a landmark process for American citizens afforded through the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This did not come easily though. Oppression had come from many walks of the land for many years and many white people had fought equal rights with tyranny and violence. The blacks were especially affected by the social movement and so were women.  The catalyst for change was the need for a united democratic society where people could live in a united democracy that our founding fathers deemed under the United Stated Constitution.

Representative Howard Smith of Virginia was one of the political activists who pushed to kill the bill but Alice Paul and the National Women’s Party with the help of Martha Griffins from Detroit (Democratic) pushed for women’s rights in the workplace. They pushed for the word ‘sex’ in the agenda to be left in the legislation so that women could be afforded the right to less discriminated against.  “Section 703 (a) made it unlawful for an employer to “fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions or privileges or employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” (Teaching with Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”).  Through this concession and emphasis is when Title VII of the Act was finally commenced and formed as part of our current legislation.

Congress had since extended other powers to the EEOC to investigate situations that would warrant discrimination based on color, religion, sex, national origin and proceed with their investigation according to legislative powers set forth under such Acts. There is the Equal Pay Act of 1963 that prohibits discrimination based on gender for the same work under similar conditions. Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990 prohibits discrimination based on a disability in the public and private sector for the purposes of hiring and firing of an employee. Title IX of the Education Act of 1972 forbade discrimination on the grounds of gender with respect to education programs including the distribution of funding to programs.

As you can see since the first time Rosa Parks sat on the bus in the 1960’s and was not allowed to do so there was great strides made to make this happen in a fashion where women and blacks would be allowed to have equal rights. Foreign nationals would no longer be discriminated simply because they were not originally from the country of America. People like Malcolm X, Martin Luther King fought great strides and died for the right and privilege of many people to sit in the front of the bus or the right to walk on the same roads as the white privileged people. At one time the black people could not be caught in a white area at night or they would be lynched to death. They had to live on one side of town separate from the white race. This still goes on in some small southern towns. Racial oppression is still prevalent today. The Constitution gives us all the right to equal access to the same laws, the same rights afforded by the courts and the right to breathe the same air.

Women were further discriminated in the workforce as their time off for pregnancies were not covered until the implementation of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act in the 1970’s. “This made it illegal for employers to exclude pregnancy and childbirth from their sick plan and health plane benefits.” (Teaching with Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”). Look at the great stride the Family Medical Leave Act had to partake to give patrons/employees the right to have time off when they needed in time of illness for themselves and when their families were ill.

President Lyndon B. Johnson was the protagonist or moving force behind taking affirmative action to ensure all applicants were treated equally without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Through his plight actually “coined” the first term of the phrased use of ‘affirmative action’. In 1969 an executive order required that every level of federal service offer equal opportunities for women and established a program to implement that action. President Richard Nixon’s Department of Labor adopted a plan requiring federal contractors to assess their employees to identify gender and race and to set goals to end any under-representation of women and minorities.” (Teaching with Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission”).

In the 1970’s most of the state and national government agencies had promised some form of protection for equal protection under the law through the EEOC and the complaint process. The EEOC was the first line of complaint and the first line of recourse if an employee felt they were being discriminated against. There still was much division between active liberals and conservatives in the government about what constituted discrimination, though. Of course the liberals were in favor of the creation of the EEOC and supported the agency hands down.

It was in the 1990’s that the court enacted legislation and judicial precedent such as Cleveland Board of Education v LaFleur where it was distinguished that public employers could use carefully constructed affirmative action plans to remedy past discrimination that resulted in women and minorities being under represented in the workplace. Another precedent was Johnson v Transportation Agency, Santa Clara, where state and local laws prohibited gender discrimination in all forms.

References

Teaching with Documents: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the EEOC Retrieved June 26, 2010 from, http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/civil-rights-act/