Academic Freedom and Free Speech at U of I
The Broyles’ Bills
Clabaugh Act (1947)
The Leo Koch Case
The Fight for Freedom of Speech and Expression in the 1960s
Student Life during the Cold War Era
The GI Bill and the U of I
Sex, Censorship, and the College Scene
Conservatives on Campus
The Black Athlete at the U of I
Women’s Athletics at the University of Illinois
The Struggle for Integration in the 1940s and 50s
Affirmative Action at the University of Illinois
Project 500
Second Wave Feminism on Campus
Gay Rights on Campus
Latina/o Students at U of I
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at U of I
U of I students and the draft
1967 Protest-Sit-In against DOW Chemical
Publication of “Walrus”
October 15, 1969 Moratorium
March 1970 Rally Against GE
March Riots (1970)
May Student Strike (1970)
The Rise and Fall of President George D. Stoddard
The U of I and the Defense Department
Surveillance, Discipline and the University of Illinois
The phrase “affirmative action” was first used in President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246 which required federal contractors to “take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed, and that employees are treated during employment, without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin.” In 1967, Johnson expanded the Executive Order to include affirmative action requirements for women as well. What resulted was the United States most determined effort to remedy its lengthy record of racial and sexual discrimination.
In the post-Reconstruction era, official, government-sanctioned inequality began in 1896, when the Supreme Court's ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that “separate, but equal” doctrines were constitutional. The results were anything but equal for African Americans, and Jim Crow laws spread across the South. In addition, many of the significant programs passed during the New Deal and Fair Deal era of the 1930s and 1940s were fashioned in an inequitable way. New Deal liberals were forced to relent to Southern Democratic demands that excluded domestics and farm workers from government protections and programs. The GI Bill, passed in 1944 to reintroduce soldiers to civilian life, favored white veterans by turning the doling out of benefits to local governments where discrimination was often a matter of law and policy, thereby guaranteeing that blacks would be excluded from many of the housing and educational benefits.
As the Black Civil Rights and Feminist Movements prospered in the 1960s, affirmative action was proposed as a means to rectify American discrimination of both the official and informal kinds. Affirmative Action policies commonly set goals and timetables for improved diversity - and utilize recruitment, set-asides and preferences as a means of attaining those objectives.
University of Illinois Sources:
Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action Office Issuances, 1968-1997 (RS 24/9/803)
The Board of Trustees Reports, 1867- (RS 1/1/802): The reports from 1968-70 deal with many African American issues including Project 500, a program designed to bring 500 minority students to the U of I in 1968.
President John Corbally Staff Subject File, 1960-76 (RS: 2/13/13): Includes contracts, correspondence, newspaper clippings, proposals and reports concerning Affirmative Action.
President Stanley Ikenberry Subject File, 1979-1997 (RS: 2/14/5): Includes contracts, correspondence, newspaper clippings, proposals and reports concerning Affirmative Action.
Provost’s Office Correspondence, 1965-1974 (RS: 5/1/2)
Vice President for Academic Affairs Subject File, 1965-1984 (RS: 5/1/3): Subject file of Vice Presidents for Academic Affairs Eldon Johnson, Peter Yankwich, and Morton Weir includes speeches concerning Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity.
Dean’s Office Administrative Subject File, 1963-85 (RS: 7/1/7)
Afro-American Studies and Research Program Subject File, 1948-2003 (RS: 15/42/5): Box 2 includes information on the Affirmative Action plans at the U of I.
Joseph S. Moag, “Affirmative Action and the University of Illinois” Afro-American Studies and Research Program Subject File, 1948-2003 (RS: 15/42/5)
Chancellor’s Office Ombudsman's Subject File, 1960-1992 (RS: 24/1/11): Includes files of University ombudsmen concerning affirmative action reports and procedures.
Chancellor’s Office Nonacademic Office Subject File, 1963-88 (RS: 24/9/1): Includes Affirmative Action policies and procedures.
Chancellor’s Office Affirmative Action Subject File, 1968-1989 (RS: 24/9/2)
Dean of Students Equal Employment Opportunity Committee Records, 1979-1987 (RS: 41/1/60): Includes reports concerning Affirmative Action requirements for academic and non-academic searches.
Dean's Subject File, 1943-1963, 1973-1988 (RS: 41/2/31)
Daily Illini, 1874- (Microform in Newspaper Library)
Bibliography:
Terry H. Anderson, The Pursuit of Fairness: A History of Affirmative Action ( New York: 2004).
Ira Katznelson, When Affirmative Action was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America (New York: 2005).
Nicholas Laham, The Reagan Presidency and the Politics of Race: In Pursuit of Colorblind Justice and Limited Government (Westport, CT: 1998).
Jane Loeb, et al., “The Effectiveness of Affirmative Action for Women,” Journal of Higher Education 49:3 (1978), 218-230.
Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson, ed., Affirmative Action: A Documentary History (Westport, CT: 2001).
Philip F. Rubio, A History of Affirmative Action, 1619-2000 (Jackson, MS: 2001).
Robert J. Weiss, “We want jobs”: A History of Affirmative Action (New York: 1997).
Joy Williamson, Black Power on Campus: The University of Illinois, 1965-1975. (Champaign: 2003).
