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THE PRESIDENCY, THE BUREAUCRACY, AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: A CASE STUDY OF THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION, 1963-1969
Abstract
After assuming the presidency following the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, Lyndon Johnson embarked upon a course of action designed to promote equal opportunity in virtually every aspect of American life. Noting that previous executive and legislative initiatives had failed to overcome the legacy of racism and sexism in the United States, Lyndon Johnson issued Executive Order 11246 on September 24, 1965 that had as its mandate the elimination of discrimination with regards to contractors and subcontractors in the service of the United States Government. The provisions of the Order, supplemented with the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the 1968 Civil Rights Act, were later to be applicable to education, voting, and housing. This mandate differed from previous ameliorative proposals in the sense that it required that affirmative action be taken to eliminate racist and sexist practices. It also assessed penalties for non-compliance. This research effort focuses on the interplay between the Johnson Administration, the Congress and the federal bureaucracy in their attempt to attain the illusive goal of equal opportunity. The study suggests that because of his philosophical view of the presidency, as evidenced by his energetic efforts to involve the Office of the President and the rest of the executive branch in the civil rights struggle, his political skills, his intelligence network, his many credits with members of the Congress, and a political environment receptive to the idea of equal opportunity, Lyndon B. Johnson, more than any other American president, was better equipped to amass the greatest successes in the area of equal opportunity that history has recorded. Indeed, the study suggests that, at the time, no one else could have accomplished this.
Subject Area
Political science
Recommended Citation
MONTGOMERY, ROOSEVELT, "THE PRESIDENCY, THE BUREAUCRACY, AND AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: A CASE STUDY OF THE JOHNSON ADMINISTRATION, 1963-1969" (1985). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8521467.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8521467