The term entered federal policy in 1961, when President John F. Kennedy's Executive Order 10925 told government contractors to take affirmative action to ensure workers were treated without regard to race. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson's Executive Order 11246 required federal contractors to take affirmative steps against discrimination. Colleges, employers and governments then adopted programs to open doors long closed to Black people, other people of color and women.
Courts steadily narrowed those programs. In Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978), the Supreme Court banned racial quotas but allowed race as one factor in admissions. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) reaffirmed that. California voters banned affirmative action in public institutions with Proposition 209 in 1996, and several states followed. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023), the Court ended race-conscious college admissions. In January 2025, President Trump revoked Executive Order 11246.
The effects are measurable. After California's ban, Black and Latino enrollment fell at UC Berkeley and UCLA. Critics call affirmative action reverse discrimination. Supporters note that preferences for legacies and donors' children, which mostly benefit white applicants, have drawn far less scrutiny.