Is it the Jim Crow era again? Because segregation may be coming back to the United States.
In a public memo issued by the General Services Administration, the federal government no longer prohibits contractors from having segregated waiting rooms, restaurants, and water fountains.
The memo specifically read, “When issuing new solicitations or contracts do not include any of the following provisions and clauses... Prohibition of Segregated Facilities.”
The repealed “segregation clause” was prompted by President Donald Trump’s executive order on DEI, which also rescinded President Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1965 order that provided “equal opportunity in Federal employment for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, or national origin,” according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
This clause can be found in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which is a set of rules agencies have to follow to write contracts for people providing services to the government.
The clause reads, “The Contractor agrees that it does not and will not maintain or provide for its employees any segregated facilities at any of its establishments, and that it does not and will not permit its employees to perform their services at any location under its control where segregated facilities are maintained.”
The “segregated facilities” that are specified by FAR include restrooms, restaurants, parking lots, waiting rooms, and locker rooms. They also specify that you cannot segregate based on race, color, religion, or sexual orientation.
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“It’s symbolic, but it’s incredibly meaningful in its symbolism,” says Melissa Murray, a constitutional law professor at New York University. “These provisions that required federal contractors to adhere to and comply with federal civil rights laws and to maintain integrated rather than segregated workplaces were all part of the federal government’s efforts to facilitate the settlement that led to integration in the 1950s and 1960s.
“The fact that they are now excluding those provisions from the requirements for federal contractors, I think, speaks volumes,” Murray says.
While this may be a significant revelation, businesses still have to follow the state and federal laws, which include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed segregation, according to the National Archives.