LDF Tests Strength of '64 Rights Act Ban on Job Bias

Press Release
April 11, 1970

LDF Tests Strength of '64 Rights Act Ban on Job Bias preview

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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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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

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