The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) was created by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and became operational on July 2, 1965. Title VII was amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, which created the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinating Council (FG 109-1). The Act increased the scope of the Commission's responsibilities to include the elimination of sex discrimination as well as discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin. This included discrimination in hiring, promoting, firing, wages rates, testing, training, apprenticeship and all other conditions of employment. The EEOC acquired additional responsibilities in subsequent legislation. On June 30, 1978, the Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinating Council was abolished by the passage of the Executive Order 12067. Its functions were transferred to the Commission. Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1978, effective January 1, 1979, transferred from the Civil Service Commission to the EEOC the responsibilities of Federal government employment related to affirmative action programs, the Equal Pay Act of 1973, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Handicap and Rehabilitation Act of 1973. On July 1, 1979, the responsibility for enforcement in both Federal government and private industry of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 was transferred to the EEOC from the Labor Department. The Commission also promotes voluntary action programs by employers, unions and community organizations.
Correspondents include: President Richard Nixon, Anne Armstrong, Robert Brown, Patrick Buchanan, Arthur Burns, John Calhoun, Harry Dent, John Ehrlichman, Robert Finch, Peter Flanigan, Harry Flemming, Barbara Franklin, Leonard Garment, Jerris Leonard, Daniel Moynihan, Bradley Patterson, Jr., Stanley Scott, George Shultz, Laurence Silberman, EEOC Chairmen Clifford Alexander, Jr., William Brown and John Powell, Vice CHairman Luther Holcomb, and Commissioners Elizabeth Kuck, Colston Lewis, Ethel Bent Walsh and Vicente Ximines.
The terms Executive and General precede each FG 109 file designation. The Executive file category includes correspondence from President Nixon, Administration and Commission officials concerning proposed legislation, hearings, reports, speeches, news articles, job appointments and Administration programs for women appointees and Spanish-speaking people. The General file category includes correspondence of Administration and Commission officials with members of Congress and minority organizations. The correspondence includes such topics as the resignation of Chairman Clifford Alexander, Jr., job recommendations, hearings, speeches, reports and news articles. The files subdivided (/A) indicate job appointments. Further information may be found in the White House Central Files, Staff Member and Office Files of Bradley Patterson, Jr. and in the following subject files categories:
FA Federal Aid
FA 3 Federal Aid - Education
FG 6-15 Domestic Council
FG 22 Department of Labor
FG 24 Department of Housing and Urban Development
FG 90 Commission on Civil Rights
FG 145 Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish-Speaking People
FI 4/FG 109 Budget-Appropriations/Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
HU 2 Human Rights-Equality
HU 2-1 Education-Schooling
HU 2-2 Employment
HU 2-3 Housing
HU 2-5 Women
JL 2 Judicial-Legal Matters-Civil Matters - Includes claims and litigations against the government
LA 2 Labor-Management Relations-Conditions-Employment-Unemployment
LA 9 Welfare-Pensions-Retirement
The Equal Employment Opportunity Coordinating Council (FG 109-1) was created on March 24, 1972 as part of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. The purpose of the Council was to provide coherence and direction to the Federal government's efforts for equal employment opportunity. Executive Order 12067 of June 30, 1978 abolished the Council and transferred its duties to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Order required that strong uniform standards be applied throughout the Federal government, and provided for standardized data collection, joint training programs and other procedures.
The Executive file in this subject category contains correspondence and the first two annual reports of the Council. The General file in this subject category is empty. Correspondents include Council Chairmen Ralph Erickson and Joseph Sneed, Deputy Attorney Generals in the Department of Justice and other Council members who signed the annual reports: Undersecretaries of Labor Laurence Silberman and Richard Shubert, Chairman William Brown of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Chairman Robert Hampton of the Civil Service Commission and Staff Director John Buggs of the Civil Rights Commission. Related materials may be found in the White House Central Files subject category for the Department of Justice (FG 17).
FG 109 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION
These files include correspondence, memos, news articles, press releases and speech and television transcripts. The files include such topics as the EEOC Chairmen and Commissioners, proposed legislation, the budget, reports and hearings, alleged business harassment, industry problems, job appointments and resignations, and evaluations of equal employment opportunity progress. There are materials concerning an exchange between Senators Everett Dirksen, Edward Kennedy and Chairman Clifford Alexander, Jr. during a March 27, 1969 Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Nixon Administration civil rights policies. Issues discussed in the materials concerning proposed legislation for the Equal Employment Act of 1972 include: a proposed transfer of functions from the Civil Service Commission (Federal employment discrimination) and the Department of Labor (Office of Federal Contract Compliance), the inclusion of women's rights, a busing amendment, and extending the power of the EEOC by either filing lawsuits in Federal district courts or by issuing cease and desist orders to employers concerning reinstatement, hiring and back pay.
FG 109-1 EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COORDINATING COUNCIL
The files include correspondence and two short annual reports. The first annual report concerns plans for the agency equal employment opportunity agreements, policies and practices. Accomplishments cited in the second annual report include the decision to retain the authority to institute suits involving a "pattern or practice" of discrimination in the Department of Justice rather than the EEOC, the development of testing guidelines for job employment, a proposed study to develop tests for occupations in state and local governments, and a March 23, 1973 guideline for state and local governments. The guideline defined permissible action in the nature of goals and timetables, and impermissible action in the nature of quotas and proportional representation.
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