Becomes "Father of Affirmative Action"

In 1969, Art Fletcher, as he was called, concentrated on the construction industry, where a mere 2 percent of the highest paying construction jobs were held by blacks. Fletcher called for hearings in Chicago in September 1969 to learn about union activities and union resistance to job integration. Conflicts between local black groups and union workers and some five hundred white construction workers who crowded the meeting site put Fletcher in harms way, forcing him to barricade himself in his hotel room. Meanwhile, Fletcher and the OFCC revised a plan that the Johnson administration had developed early on and set goals to address employment practices for racial minorities on federal projects. Secretary of Labor George Shultz put the plan into effect in the summer of 1969. It was called the Philadelphia Plan. That summer, Fletcher held hearings in Philadelphia and found indisputably that seven different construction trade unions practiced racial discrimination. After that, he put in place a plan that required federal construction workers in Philadelphia to establish goals to hire minorities and follow this by putting forth “good faith effort” to reach these goals. If not, they would face sanctions.

Some of the projects that the Nixon administration put in place, such as the experimental home town plans that called for voluntary hiring programs, gave the black community a negative image of the administration. There was mixed reaction from the black community: black militants called for totally independent development of black communities; some blacks claimed that the plan did too little; and others claimed that the aim was to drive a wedge between black and white workers by attacking unions. Fletcher went ahead with his “Order No. Four” in February 1970, setting up more stringent rules for hiring minorities and later issued show cause orders to some firms, who had to do just that or perhaps be debarred from defense contract-bidding.

Fletcher’s plan became the model for affirmative action programs elsewhere. Quoted in the Washington Post , he told Fortune magazine in 2000, “Affirmative action changed the American workplace for the better, forever.” Proud of his work in this area, he said, “I’m proud to say that I set the stage for today’s workplace and workforce diversity efforts.” Years later, he told an audience in Peoria, Illinois, cited in the New York Times , that “the purpose of affirmative action is so that you can do what God intended you to do and be what he intended you to be.” Even later, he urged corporations to keep affirmative action alive. At the time of Fletcher’s death, Julian Bond, chair of the NAACP Board of Directors, said in an article from the NAACP that he made the Philadelphia Plan “a prototype of early affirmative action decrees. As he often said, it ‘put flesh and blood on Dr. King’s dream.’”

Fletcher resigned his post in the Nixon administration in December 1971 to become head of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), then an organization of forty black colleges that came together for joint fundraising. While he was there, Forest Long of the advertising agency Young and Rubicam created the phrase “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” that became the UNCF’s slogan and pierced America’s conscientiousness toward financial support. Many sources, however, attributed the slogan to Fletcher. UNCF continues to use the phrase in promotional pieces. At odds with the fund’s leaders, a little over a year later Fletcher stepped down, but not before he had started a management training program and had begun a grass-roots effort to reach blacks beyond the middle class.

Moving into private enterprise, in 1973 Fletcher founded and served as president of the consulting firm Arthur A. Fletcher and Associates. Its mission was to provide consulting services in government relations, management relations, and human resource development. It also conducted affirmative action technical assistance seminars and workshops at colleges throughout the country. In a joint venture with the Gray Hound Corporation, the firm provided food service and lodging for workers at the Alaskan pipeline project. In the 1980s the firm held the food services contract at Fort Belvoir, Virginia and served meals to troops stationed there. He left the firm in 1989. While with his firm, however, Fletcher testified at the hearings of the House Judiciary Committee in 1973 in support of Gerald R. Ford’s nomination for vice president of the United States. Ford repaid him by appointing him deputy advisor of urban affairs. Some claim that in this post he became known as the father of the affirmative action enforcement movement.

In this position, Fletcher was responsible to James M. Cannon, the executive director for domestic affairs. He reviewed proposals, conferred with government and corporate leaders, and met with Congress and other federal officials. The black community kept in touch with Fletcher, informing him of ongoing activities. He visited these institutions and solicited their advice. He also had contact with educational, social, and political organizations. Blacks in large corporations, small enterprises, and in neighborhood groups sought his assistance in urban issues. Fletcher’s service came during the Ford administration’s last year—an election year—and he became active in the reelection campaign. He traveled throughout the country giving speeches and discussing Ford’s domestic policies. While in the field, he met with community leaders and private citizens at the local and national levels. Those who sought funds from various federal agencies for projects dealing with the elderly, housing, mass transit, and other issues often gave Fletcher their proposal for review. Small businesses saw him as liaison between their offices and bureaucracy.