“Ironically, I hired Ruth Abram to help coordinate the LDF [(NAACP) Legal Defense Fund] Title VII campaign after her father, Morris Abram, asked whether I would give his daughter a summer job. She turned out to be terrific. Morris later became president of the American Jewish Congress and one of the most outspoken foes of affirmative action....
“Lyndon Johnson, in a celebrated 1965 commencement address at Howard University, said that 'you do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line and then say, 'You are free to compete with all others' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.'...
“Opponents summoned images of quotas, which had excluded Jews from American and European universities. They quoted Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy-- 'Our constitution is color-blind'--and relied on Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 'No person shall, on the ground of race...be excluded from any program of activity receiving Federal financial assistance,' and on Title VII, which made it unlawful to 'discriminate [in employment] because of … race.' …
“But affirmative action cases presented difficulties for civil rights lawyers. Usually we were on the outside looking in. When a university favored minorities, and a white sued, we had no input into how the program had been formulated or how to conduct the litigation. Usually, we could only file an after-the-fact friend-of-the-court brief. Another major problem presented by these cases was that major Jewish organizations vigorously opposed affirmative action, causing serious conflict between blacks and Jews, which was not in the interest of either group....
“For the first time in the history of the movement black and Jewish groups were divided bitterly. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Congress opposed the university's policy in Defunis [Defunis v. Odegaard]...
“ADL became the point man opposing affirmative action. In their ADL brief, Alexander Bickel and Philip Kurland, eminent constitutional scholars, called the university's program a 'numerous clausus' using the term for the quota used against Jews who applied to universities in Europe before the Second World War. They argued that the policy stigmatized blacks, impaired their self-esteem, was as 'invidious as it is patronizing,' and that the program's aims could be achieved by open admissions, larger classes, and special preparation.”
Saturday, January 4, 2014
"AFFIRMATIVE ACTION"...EXCERPT
CRUSADERS IN THE COURTS: Legal Battles in the Civil Rights Movement, by Jack Greenberg (Twelve Tables Press, NY: 2004), p. 500-501 – “Affirmative Action”
“Ironically, I hired Ruth Abram to help coordinate the LDF [(NAACP) Legal Defense Fund] Title VII campaign after her father, Morris Abram, asked whether I would give his daughter a summer job. She turned out to be terrific. Morris later became president of the American Jewish Congress and one of the most outspoken foes of affirmative action....
“Lyndon Johnson, in a celebrated 1965 commencement address at Howard University, said that 'you do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line and then say, 'You are free to compete with all others' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.'...
“Opponents summoned images of quotas, which had excluded Jews from American and European universities. They quoted Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy-- 'Our constitution is color-blind'--and relied on Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 'No person shall, on the ground of race...be excluded from any program of activity receiving Federal financial assistance,' and on Title VII, which made it unlawful to 'discriminate [in employment] because of … race.' …
“But affirmative action cases presented difficulties for civil rights lawyers. Usually we were on the outside looking in. When a university favored minorities, and a white sued, we had no input into how the program had been formulated or how to conduct the litigation. Usually, we could only file an after-the-fact friend-of-the-court brief. Another major problem presented by these cases was that major Jewish organizations vigorously opposed affirmative action, causing serious conflict between blacks and Jews, which was not in the interest of either group....
“For the first time in the history of the movement black and Jewish groups were divided bitterly. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Congress opposed the university's policy in Defunis [Defunis v. Odegaard]...
“ADL became the point man opposing affirmative action. In their ADL brief, Alexander Bickel and Philip Kurland, eminent constitutional scholars, called the university's program a 'numerous clausus' using the term for the quota used against Jews who applied to universities in Europe before the Second World War. They argued that the policy stigmatized blacks, impaired their self-esteem, was as 'invidious as it is patronizing,' and that the program's aims could be achieved by open admissions, larger classes, and special preparation.”
“Ironically, I hired Ruth Abram to help coordinate the LDF [(NAACP) Legal Defense Fund] Title VII campaign after her father, Morris Abram, asked whether I would give his daughter a summer job. She turned out to be terrific. Morris later became president of the American Jewish Congress and one of the most outspoken foes of affirmative action....
“Lyndon Johnson, in a celebrated 1965 commencement address at Howard University, said that 'you do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line and then say, 'You are free to compete with all others' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.'...
“Opponents summoned images of quotas, which had excluded Jews from American and European universities. They quoted Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy-- 'Our constitution is color-blind'--and relied on Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 'No person shall, on the ground of race...be excluded from any program of activity receiving Federal financial assistance,' and on Title VII, which made it unlawful to 'discriminate [in employment] because of … race.' …
“But affirmative action cases presented difficulties for civil rights lawyers. Usually we were on the outside looking in. When a university favored minorities, and a white sued, we had no input into how the program had been formulated or how to conduct the litigation. Usually, we could only file an after-the-fact friend-of-the-court brief. Another major problem presented by these cases was that major Jewish organizations vigorously opposed affirmative action, causing serious conflict between blacks and Jews, which was not in the interest of either group....
“For the first time in the history of the movement black and Jewish groups were divided bitterly. The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith (ADL), the American Jewish Committee, and the American Jewish Congress opposed the university's policy in Defunis [Defunis v. Odegaard]...
“ADL became the point man opposing affirmative action. In their ADL brief, Alexander Bickel and Philip Kurland, eminent constitutional scholars, called the university's program a 'numerous clausus' using the term for the quota used against Jews who applied to universities in Europe before the Second World War. They argued that the policy stigmatized blacks, impaired their self-esteem, was as 'invidious as it is patronizing,' and that the program's aims could be achieved by open admissions, larger classes, and special preparation.”
