The year was 1965. The ink on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was hardly dry. Duke Power Company executives at the Dan River Steam Station near Draper, N.C., needed a new personnel policy. The old one had been simple: segregation. African Americans worked as laborers; only whites could do other jobs. But Title VII of the new Act forbade employers to discriminate by “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” On July 2, 1965—the day the Act took effect—Duke Power announced a new policy. New hires had to have a high school education and pass two standardized tests—unless, that is, they wanted to work as … laborers. If laborers wanted to transfer to other jobs, they either had to have a high school diploma or had to pass the tests.
At that time, 34 percent of whites in North Carolina had finished high school; only 12 percent of blacks had done the same. Federal agencies ran experiments using the tests; 58 percent of whites passed, but just 6 percent of blacks.
[For more of this story, written by Garrett Epps, go to http://www.theatlantic.com/pol...t-deliberate/384739/]
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