Concept Application: Accountability in Government Hiring Practices

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the first executive order prohibiting racial discrimination in the nation’s defense industry. President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s executive order in 1953 expanded this idea by prohibiting hiring discrimination throughout the federal government based on race, color, or national origin. 

In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Order 11246 further protected members of minority groups from hiring discrimination. The order stated that any government contractor with a contract valued at more than $10,000 could not discriminate based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

Executive Order 11246 also required contractors with more than $50,000 of government contacts to create affirmative action hiring policies that would encourage more women and members of minority groups to enter the workforce. Contractors against these requirements lost their federal court cases.