In the late 1960s, my cousin Donald returned home to St. Louis after two tours of duty in Vietnam eager to find a job, get married, and get on with his life. With a high school diploma, an honorable discharge from the military and no criminal record, the ex-Marine who had proudly served his country figured it would be a cinch to find a job. He was wrong.
Though the newspapers were fat with classified advertisements for jobs, factories were hiring and government jobs were plentiful, he was turned down for every job he applied for, he says, because of his race. For example, prospective employers who were eager to hire him during initial telephone conversations, suddenly no longer had openings when he appeared in person, he said.
Just as Donald was about to sink into despair, word reached him that the U.S. Postal Service had agreed to hire a certain number of black people -- this was at a time when even the number of black letter carriers was small.
Donald and a friend rushed to the main post office in St. Louis the day they heard the news, took a written test, were interviewed and were hired immediately.
Donald's mother credits the sudden hiring of many young black men in government jobs that year with St. Louis' escaping the riots that would mar other large cities that summer.
Donald was probably the first person I personally knew to benefit from what we now call affirmative action, the practice of giving preference, usually to black people, to make amends for hundreds of years of slavery and subsequent discrimination.
Now along comes a Republican-dominated Congress that says it's time to scrap affirmative action because it's unfair.
Even President Clinton this week ordered an "intense, urgent" review of all government affirmative-action programs to identify and jettison those that are unfair or don't work.
Republican leaders say they want to return to the good old days of a "color-blind" society when it comes to hiring.
My cousin Donald's case, however, and others like it, have proved time and again that our society wasn't color-blind in the past -- rather it was simply blind to the needs of black people.
Many black people can recount stories from the past of family members and friends who had Ph.Ds and law degrees, but the best jobs they could get were sorting mail at the post office or working as Pullman porters on trains. The blossoming of the black middle class only happened in the past generation with the opening of the doors of the nation's colleges and employers to all. Still, there's a large underclass left behind.
It's important to note, too, that those changes -- while usually led by Democrats -- often had Republican support.
In the early 1970s, President Richard Nixon supported the congressional bill that gave the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission the power to sue employers who discriminated. Such landmark legislation helped persuade many reluctant employers to hire racial minorities.
The courts, too, played an essential role. In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that employers could not use job tests that have the effect of screening out blacks, if the tests are not related to the ability to do the work.
Imagine applying for a truck-driving job and being given a test on Russian history. It used to happen.
Of course, the sudden interest in affirmative action is politically motivated. The "angry white males" who, according to pollsters, provided the winning margin for the Republican sweep in November feel they are being short-changed in the job market.
Hugh B. Price, president of the National Urban League, in speaking to the The Sun's editorial board Thursday, said the problem is that white America is just now feeling the economic restructuring that hit black America a decade ago when well-paying jobs moved to the suburbs and rural areas and then abroad.
He said white males are becoming as angry as black males have been for some time at their economic prospects.
Instead of using affirmative action as a scapegoat to get elected, politicians need to work on developing economic and educational programs that will help angry black and white people get good paying jobs again.
That's something that will help the whole country.
Marilyn McCraven edits The Evening Sun's Other Voices page.