Executive Order 10925 (1961) created the Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, which required federal contractors to “take affirmative action” against discrimination. The 1964 Civil Rights Act banned discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex (later including sexual identity and physical condition). It also formed the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); affirmative action became shorthand for ensuring equal economic, educational, and political opportunities.

African Americans pursued equality in education, employment, housing, and more. The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and National Women's Law Center, among other groups, provided crucial assistance. In the meantime, federal courts began a retreat from remedies for inequalities such as de facto segregated schools. In 1974 the Supreme Court disallowed a lower court's order requiring that suburban school districts bus students as part of an adjacent urban district's desegregation plan. Opponents called affirmative action “reverse discrimination” or “race preferences” as it saw growing opposition. However, the second Clinton administration “vowed to ‘mend not end’ affirmative action.” It did so largely by reducing cash payments and job-training programs that crucially helped welfare recipients. In a 1997 Gallup Poll, 79 percent of whites believed black applicants had an equal opportunity to be hired, compared to 51 percent of blacks.

See also Bakke v. Board of Regents of California (1978) ; Civil Rights Act of 1964.