The NAACP Legal Defense Fund will testify tomorrow before the U.S. House of Representatives at a hearing held by the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
President and Director-Counsel Sherrilyn Ifill is one of four witnesses invited to testify at the hearing on “The Regulatory and Enforcement Priorities of the EEOC: Examining the Concerns of Stakeholders.” The hearing will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10, and can be viewed here.
Next month, the nation will celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As such, the hearing provides an opportune time to focus on our nation’s continued commitment to eradicating discrimination in the workplace. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in employment on the basis of race and color and other bases, and established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to receive, investigate, and resolve complaints of employment discrimination.
LDF has had the unique opportunity to observe the work of the EEOC over five decades. LDF litigated many of the seminal cases initially interpreting Title VII, and in the first year of the EEOC’s operation, LDF filed nearly a thousand complaints of racial discrimination with the agency. LDF believes that the EEOC continues to be vitally necessary to ensuring equal opportunity in the workplace.
Unfortunately, employment discrimination against African Americans still exists. Our recent settlement against the clothing retailer Wet Seal disclosed that executives directed senior managers to get rid of African-American managers and replace them with white employees for the sake of its “brand image.”