Affirmative Action American History Contemporary Documentary

Affirmative Action: A Documentary History

By Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson

Examining affirmative action and its history through these 400 documents that trace its roots and development, this work is an invaluable reference resource. Race, gender, and disability, as they pertaining to affirmative action, are also explored.

By providing a thorough presentation of the arguments both for and against, this reference encourages critical thinking as it details the ins and outs of the debate. From government reports to cartoons, high school and college students will find multiple perspectives on affirmative action. They can view the issue through the eyes of law-makers, judges, presidents, activists, the media, social scientists, those who have benefited from it, and those who have been threatened by it.

They can also discover its application in a myriad of disciplines from sports to education to business to the arts. An explanatory introduction precedes each document to aid readers in understanding the various arguments that have been put forth in this debate, providing the researcher with accessible references to all sides of the subject.

The first time the term affirmative action was used, it was 1961 and meant to eliminate workplace discrimination by the Kennedy administration. But the issues leading up to affirmative action date back to the Civil War. This book presents affirmative action processes from before the Civil War to the present. In one volume, the editor has combined primary sources and put them in a historical perspective. The book is well organized and divided into five parts by dates. To facilitate understanding, each document is accompanied by an explanatory introduction.