On this day in 1924, the “father of affirmative action” and a civil rights icon, Dr. Arthur Allen Fletcher, was born.
The last surviving plaintiff of the landmark Brown v. Board of education case before his death in 2005, he implemented the country’s first federal affirmative action program which required federal contractors to meet specific goals on minority hiring in the notoriously segregated construction industry.
Millions have benefited but so few people know the origins of this transformative government program.
Dr. Fletcher served four U.S. presidents, including a role as chairman for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President George H.W. Bush.
All this and more on “Prime.”
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