nt contracts. This began a concerted effort to abolish discrimination. With Executive Order of 10925 came the Presidents Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO). The Committee was given the authority to enforce affirmative action mandates by being able to cancel or suspend government contractors. Kennedy, mostly endorsing a race conscious affirmative action, kept away from racial preferences and quotas (Lugg, 1997, p. 11). On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Federal laws, 1998). Title VII of the act prohibits employment discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, or religion. Title VI prohibits public access discrimination, leading to school desegregation. Title VIII is the original "federal fair housing law," later amended in 1988. However, even after this and other legislation, blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans were still underrepresented in employment and education (Dorsen, 1994).President Johnson also put through Executive Order 11246 which ended coerced non-specific minority hiring and adopted hard and fast quotas (Lugg, 1997, p 13). Under this order came the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). The OFCCP was required to make annual reports on the progress of the goals and time tables obligatory of the federal contractors for hiring women and minorities (Burns, 1996, p. 3).Under the democratic congress of Nixon came a firm support of civil rights. However, Lugg (1997) suggests it was a camouflage support of racial preferences (p. 14). This meant Nixon merely enforced, and gave support to the existing laws rather than expanding on Johnsons hard and fast quotas. Nixon, as many presidents had, shied away from supporting the preferential treatment of racial preferences and quotas. Johnson was the exception.Through Nixon and the following presidencies, anti-discrimination legislation slowed down. Most of the attention went to refining the existing laws. As ...
