Minorities long were subjected to deep-rooted forms of discrimination especially from the greater white population. For instance, "if a superior had any overt or covert prejudices against members of a racial or ethnic minority, it would be apparent that an individual's destiny rested on subjective and non-rational factors (Cousens 113)." This was a result of the "failure of the Brown decision to deconstruct White dominance and privilege; it merely allowed Blacks to enter the arena of competition (Greenberg 300)." The Brown decision merely opened the labor market flood gates and made Black unemployment and White wealth an acceptable norm. .
After the United States Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, it became apparent that certain business traditions, such as seniority status and aptitude tests, prevented total equality in employment. However, on September 24, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order #11246 at Howard University that required federal contractors "to take Affirmative Action to ensure that applicants are employed. . . without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin (Civil Rights)." Affirmative Action was created in an effort to help minorities break through the discriminative barriers that were present when the bill was first enacted in 1965. At this time, the country was in the wake of nationwide civil rights demonstrations, and racial tension was at its peak. Most of the corporate executive and managerial positions were occupied by white males. The United States government, in 1965, believed that these employers were discriminating against employees and believed that there was no better time than the present to bring about change. When the Civil Rights Law passed, minorities, especially African-Americans, believed that they could receive retribution for the years of discrimination they had endured. The government responded by passing laws to aide them in attaining better employment as reprieve for the previous two hundred years of suffering their race endured at the hands of some white men.