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The 1960s: A Defining Era

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Arthur J. Goldberg, secretary of labor 1961-62, talks with workers.

I was born during the 1960s, and like a lot of people my age, I have a strong fascination with the decade, because the cultural and political forces that transpired then significantly shaped the world in which I grew up.  The 1960s also significantly shaped the work my dedicated Labor Department colleagues and I do each day.

When John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in 1961, he promised a “New Frontier” of domestic social and economic reform. Reflecting this, the ensuing years were a high intensity time at the department. Kennedy’s first secretary of labor was Arthur J. Goldberg, who advocated for civil rights and raised the minimum wage. He also oversaw the implementation of the Manpower Development and Training Act, which created the first major federal job training program, designed to address job losses due to automation. This legislation also led to the development of the Manpower Administration, the forerunner to today’s Employment and Training Administration.

Goldberg left in 1962 to become an associate justice of the Supreme Court. His replacement was Undersecretary of Labor W. Willard (Bill) Wirtz, who remained in office for the remainder of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Listen to President Kennedy offer Willard Wirtz the position of secretary of labor:

Wirtz championed programs to assist undereducated and unemployed individuals, especially disadvantaged youth, as a way to reduce poverty. In 1964, the Economic Opportunity Act was signed into law; among other things, it created Job Corps, which today annually provides 60,000 students ages 16-24 with hands-on training in high-growth industries. We’re looking forward to commemorating the 50th anniversary of this important program this year.

Wirtz also implemented the department’s antidiscrimination responsibilities resulting from the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other landmark legislation. In 1965, President Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors from discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion or national origin and requires them to take affirmative action to ensure equal opportunity in all aspects of their employment. It also established the  department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to enforce its provisions.

1969 Job Corps poster featuring Olympic champion and Job Corps graduate George Foreman.

The same year, President Johnson also signed the McNamara-O’Hara Service Contract Act. This law established, for the first time ever, standards for prevailing compensation as well as safety and health protections for employees performing work on every contract entered into by the U.S government. Enforcement responsibility was assigned to the department’s Wage and Hour Division, and enforcement of the safety and health provisions were later assigned to its Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which was established in 1971.

 

Because attempts to address age discrimination in earlier legislation were unsuccessful due to lack of credible data, Wirtz commissioned the report “The Older American Worker: Age Discrimination in Employment.” Shortly after its publication, President Johnson signed into law the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and charged the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — created by the Civil Rights Act three years earlier — with enforcing it.

As a “child of the sixties,” I’m proud that the Labor Department was at the forefront of the social progress associated with the decade that changed America for the better. As a result of the department’s work then, America’s workplaces are fairer and safer, and its workforce more diverse and vibrant, today. At the department, as in America overall, the 1960s were more than a decade; they were a defining era.

Carl Fillichio heads the Labor Department’s Office of Public Affairs and serves as the chair of the department’s centennial. This post is one in a series in which he explores the department’s impact over the past 100 years.  To view a timeline of the department’s history, watch a special centennial video and learn more about its 100 years of service, visit dol.gov/100.


Civil Rights in America: We Rise Together

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In honor of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this year’s Black History Month theme is “Civil Rights in America.” This theme has special resonance to us in the Office of Disability Employment Policy, because it’s central to what we do: advance America’s fundamental promise of equal opportunity and self-determination for all.

Barbara Jordan delivers the keynote address before the 1976 Democratic National Convention. (Library of Congress catalog No. 2002712192)

The Civil Rights Act set the wheels in motion for a more equal and inclusive America for not only African-Americans, but also other communities fighting against marginalization, segregation and exclusion —including people with disabilities. At the time the act was passed, the disability rights movement was in its infancy, and its leaders learned a great deal from the many men and women who worked indefatigably to get the law passed.

One of these leaders was Barbara Jordan, a woman for whom I have great admiration. Born in 1936, Jordan was a woman of many firsts: the first African-American woman elected to the Texas Senate; the first Southern African-American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives; and the first African-American woman to deliver a keynote address at a national political convention (ranked fifth among the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century). In fact, Jordan’s trailblazing didn’t stop upon her passing; she was the first African-American woman to be buried in the Texas State Cemetery.

Jordan was also a person with a disability; she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1973, shortly after being elected to Congress. In the ensuing years, she wasn’t entirely open about her disability, often attributing her use of a cane, and later a wheelchair, to a bad knee. This was likely due to the stigma and discrimination she feared she might face if she was open about her MS — stigma and discrimination she had personally experienced having grown up as a person of color in the American South. She also chose to remain private about her sexual orientation.

It was Jordan’s right to not disclose these additional sides of her identity, of course. But together they serve to highlight the universality of the struggle for civil rights in America. Although not active in the disability or gay rights movements, Jordan had a significant impact on them — because when we advance inclusion for any underrepresented community, it lifts all of us up a little higher. We rise together.

At ODEP, we work each day to foster a culture of inclusion, so that more people are comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. This spirit underpins all we do and is also at the heart of the Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act updates that take effect next month, which require federal contractors and subcontractors to invite applicants and employees to self-identify as people with disabilities. We want people like Barbara Jordan and so many other talented Americans to be proud of who they are — openly, without fear of discrimination.

Kathy Martinez is the assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy.

 

Disability Rights are Civil Rights

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President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964

President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Earlier this month, we as a nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Just minutes before putting pen to paper on that historic day, President Lyndon B. Johnson went on television to address the nation, articulating the law’s fundamental purpose: to create a better, more inclusive society for all Americans.

“Those who founded our country knew that freedom would be secure only if each generation fought to renew and enlarge its meaning,” he said in his address, going on to acknowledge the many leaders, both black and white, who worked tirelessly to get what he often referred to as “an American bill” onto his desk.

At the time, I was 5 years old and 3,000 miles away in southern California, doing the typical things 5-year-olds do. But, there were others older than me listening who took those words to heart in a way that would have a profound impact on my life. In the 1960s, the unified disability rights movement was just emerging, and its leaders learned a great deal from those who brought the Civil Rights Act to fruition.

Twenty-six years later, those leaders found themselves at the White House looking on as another president signed landmark civil rights legislation renewing and enlarging America’s ideal of equality — the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which was authorized by President George H.W. Bush on July 26, 1990, and closely modeled on the Civil Rights Act.

President Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

President Bush signs the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

That moment I do remember well. By that time, I had become active in the independent living and disability rights movements in California, advocacy work that laid the foundation for my career going forward. Indeed, today, the ADA underpins all we do at the department’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Earlier this year, the LBJ Presidential Library in Texas held a summit to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. In President Obama’s speech at the event, he reflected on this continuing legacy, to both America at large and him personally:

Because of the Civil Rights movement, because of the laws President Johnson signed, new doors of opportunity and education swung open for everybody — not all at once, but they swung open. Not just blacks and whites, but also women and Latinos; and Asians and Native Americans; and gay Americans and Americans with a disability. They swung open for you, and they swung open for me. And that’s why I’m standing here today — because of those efforts, because of that legacy. And that means we’ve got a debt to pay.

On multiple levels, I too am where I am today because of that legacy. And as Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, I too am committed to paying it forward — to renewing and enlarging it — for future generations of Americans with disabilities, and all Americans.
Kathy Martinez
Kathy Martinez is the assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy.

50 Years of Helping Farmworkers

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For years, Julian performed the incredibly hard work of harvesting onions and vegetables at a farm in upstate New York, making only $8.50 an hour. As a seasonal farm worker, the pay was barely enough to take care of his family.  He wanted to make a change, learn some new skills and start a new career that would give him the resources to support his family.

Through a program supported by the U.S. Labor Department, Julian received guidance on starting a new career as a commercial truck drive and helped him enroll in a training program to help him get the necessary certifications to start his new job.

Julian successfully completed his training, passed his road test, and received his commercial driver license and today, Julian is successfully employed by a trucking company where he now makes $20.17 per hour with benefits.

Julian’s story is a reality because of a commitment made by 50 years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson to restoring our nation’s fundamental promise of equality and opportunity. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the Economic Opportunity Act, signed on Aug. 20 of that year, were twin pillars of the “War on Poverty” –to extend the American Dream to those who had been unjustly excluded.

One of the key elements of the latter bill was the establishment of programs for migrant and seasonal farmworkers that would assist these workers and their families with services such as education, housing, and childcare.

Fifty years later, these Migrant and Seasonal Farmworker Programs, now referred to as the National Farmworker Job Program, continues to counter the chronic unemployment and underemployment experienced by many working in agricultural labor.

NFJP services help farmworkers retain and stabilize their current agriculture jobs, as well as enable them to participate in training and enter new careers that offer higher wages and a more stable employment outlook.  Currently the department provides employment and training grants to 52 grantees in all states but Alaska and Washington DC.  The department also awards grants to various regions around the country to provide permanent and temporary housing assistance to farmworkers and their families.

Over the last half-century thousands of farmworkers like Julian have benefited from NFJP services. In 2012 over 21,000 MSFWs were served, and in the past 14 years nearly 220,000 individuals have received services.

Every day, the hard work of farmworkers across the country make it possible to put food on our tables and feed our families. The recently signed Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 reauthorizes the NFJP and reconfirms the nation’s commitment to supporting farmworkers and their families.

The department is proud to continue the long tradition of serving farmworkers and their families through employment and training opportunities, services to youth, and housing assistance.

Portia Wu is the assistant secretary of labor for employment and training.

 

 

The 1960s: A Defining Era

0
0
I was born during the 1960s, and like a lot of people my age, I have a strong fascination with the decade, because the cultural and political forces that transpired then significantly shaped the world in which I grew up.  The 1960s also significantly shaped the work my dedicated Labor Department colleagues and I do […]

Civil Rights in America: We Rise Together

0
0
In honor of the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, this year’s Black History Month theme is “Civil Rights in America.” This theme has special resonance to us in the Office of Disability Employment Policy, because it’s central to what we do: advance America’s fundamental promise of equal opportunity […]

Disability Rights are Civil Rights

0
0
Earlier this month, we as a nation celebrated the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Just minutes before putting pen to paper on that historic day, President Lyndon B. Johnson went on television to address the nation, articulating the law’s fundamental purpose: to create a better, more inclusive society […]

50 Years of Helping Farmworkers

0
0
For years, Julian performed the incredibly hard work of harvesting onions and vegetables at a farm in upstate New York, making only $8.50 an hour. As a seasonal farm worker, the pay was barely enough to take care of his family.  He wanted to make a change, learn some new skills and start a new […]





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