LDF Tests Strength of '64 Rights Act Ban on Job Bias
Press Release
April 11, 1970

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Press Releases, Volume 6. LDF Tests Strength of '64 Rights Act Ban on Job Bias, 1970. 36e08b16-ba92-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/029a2108-54aa-41ce-9dd1-ec8c2495aa3d/ldf-tests-strength-of-64-rights-act-ban-on-job-bias. Accessed October 08, 2025.
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joF Jia FE PRESS RELEAS! egal efense und NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. 10 Columbus Circle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 April 11, 1970 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE LDF TESTS STRENGTH OF '64 RIGHTS ACT BAN ON JOB BIAS Supreme Court Petition Filed This Week WASHINGTON, D.C.---A test of the efficacy of the fair emp. President Hon. Francis E. Rivers Director-Counsel Jack Greenberg Director, Public Relations Jesse DeVore, Jr. NIGHT NUMBER 212-749-8487 loyment practices provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act (Title VII) is being sought in the U.S. Supreme Court by attorneys of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) . Charging discriminatory employment practices at the Duke Power Company in North Carolina, the LDF filed a petition in the high court this week asking for a hearing in behalf of Willie S. Griggs and other black employees of the company. At issue is the use of tests and educational requirements in hiring and promoting workers which, the LDF contends, are not related to the job and serve only to exclude qualifiéd Negroes from better~ paying positions. LDF attorneys assert that “studies confirm a gross © acial dis- parity in test scores" and records of performance refute the notion that they produce better employees. "A test or educational requirement that is not job-related assures only that hiring will be on the pasis of educational and cultural background, which, at least in this society, is only thinly veiled racial discrimination," the petition states. If these tests are permitted, the LDF continues, the door will be open to other so-called "objective" criteria having similar racial effect, and equal employment opportunity will be "hollow rhetoric." The case is being appealed from the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which affirmed a district court opinion that allowed Duke to continue to impose the tests and educational requirements which allegedly discriminate against blacks. tHE E25