ABSTRACT
From 1941 to 1963, Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy issued a number of executive orders affecting civil rights. During the two decades prior to the tougher actions of the mid-1960s, presidential directives were concerned with such issues as fair employment practices, federal contracts with private industry, employment and advancement opportunities in federal service, integration in the armed forces, voting, housing, and public school desegregation. Early in 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, which established the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity. Although its coverage sextended only to federal government contracts, Executive Order 10925 differed in very important ways from the earlier presidential orders. Although racial inequality was attacked through a series of executive orders ranging over several decades, the first major federal action before 1964 relating to sex inequality in employment was the Equal Pay Act of 1963.
