The Constitution and Job Discrimination

Abstract

I should perhaps state the assumptions from which my discussion proceeds. I view discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin or creed as an intolerable practice and a mockery of our national aspirations whether it occurs in the field of employment or elsewhere. The continuation of such practices more than 100 years after the Emanicipation Proclamation seems to me a national disgrace whose elimination cannot longer await the general enlightenment of all parts of the nation. The full powers of government should be brought to bear against such discriminatory practices. And in my search for the most effective use to be made of governmental powers to that end the individual rights involved seem to me heavily to outweigh any argument for continued obeisance to "states rights"—particularly as the argument emanates from states dedicated to the denial of individual rights on grounds of race.