Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry

4. Affirmative Action and the Search for White Collars

Chapter 4 Affirmative Action and the Search for White Collars If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, recreated from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: ‘‘God gave Noah the rainbow sign. No more water, the fire next time!’’ —James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time By the mid-1960s, the disillusionment and pent-up anger that many blacks felt were ready to explode. Obviously the nation had made strides with some of the recent civil rights victories in the South, but they had slight impact outside the region. For black residents in northern cities, the victories against bus companies, hotels, and department stores were an important symbol of racial progress but little more. African Americans in most northern cities could already freely vote, experienced few instances of overt racial violence, and already received mostly equal treatment in consumer spaces. In contrast to their southern brethren, the primary focus for northern blacks was economic. As one resident of Harlem bitterly remarked, ‘‘The black cat in Harlem wasn’t worried about no damn bus—he’d been riding the bus for fifty years. What he didn’t have was the fare.’’ As a result, blacks in the North not only continued the fight for job opportunities that they waged since World War II but also expanded their demands to include a special emphasis on professional- and management-level opportunities. The growing problem , however, was that not all African Americans were willing to wait for the ongoing protests to bring the changes that addressed their needs. As writer and poet Langston Hughes passionately warned whites over a decade before the cities exploded: Negroes, Sweet and docile, Meek, humble and kind: 158 Chapter 4 Beware the day They change their minds!1 This chapter examines the intense period of investigation and scrutiny in which state, local, and federal government organizations echoed the ongoing work of civil rights activists and demanded changes from advertising agencies in both hiring and creative practices. The twin pressures from private and government organizations captured the attention of the industry as leaders realized agencies now faced not only the possibility of negative publicity and boycotts of their clients’ products but also possible prosecution for discrimination. The story and chapter begin at the state and local levels, as government investigators explored industry hiring practices as well as how agencies used blacks in advertisements. The chapter continues as federal EEOC later joined the fight and called executives to answer charges of discrimination and to explain the dearth of minorities in the industry. Commissions at all three levels of government pressed agencies to do more than develop open hiring policies, including training and recruitment of blacks for professional-level agency work. Further, commissioners at all three levels echoed the arguments of civil rights groups in linking the issue of minority employment in advertising agencies with the depiction of minorities in advertisements . If agencies had more black and minority employees, activists and civil servants argued, then the interconnected faces of discrimination, industry diversity, and advertisements would be altered. Specifically, if blacks were routinely present in advertising agencies, their presence and influence would help lead agencies to question their traditional use of blacks in advertisements. In advance of the riots of the mid-1960s, the federal government began taking reluctant but decisive steps demonstrating a more active involvement on employment discrimination. In 1961, John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925 stipulating that companies with government contracts should set up affirmative action hiring policies. This order strengthened Roosevelt’s Executive Order 8802 that had banned employment discrimination in companies with defense contracts. The new order also established the President’s Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity (PCEEO), a group with the mandate to actively investigate discrimination complaints in companies with government contracts.2 After Kennedy’s assassination, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 expanded the legal requirements of fair employment even further and added an investigatory and administrative arm, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Further, the passage of fair employment legislation in several states, as well as rising activity from state and Affirmative Action 159 municipal employment commissions, broadened the impact of these federal developments. Also, the progressive spirit and economic support of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty only enhanced the earlier legislative victories. This comprehensive program, like the New Deal during the 1930s, sought...