Recent historical scholarship on public policy in relation to race and labor in the post-title-VII period

The scholarly literature on the recent history of public policies dealing with race and labor has focused on the origins, implementation, and aftermath of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Historians and historically informed scholars in other disciplines have focused particular attention on affirmative action programs, which were designed initially to implement the requirements of Title VII. Scholars such as John D. Skrentny and Hugh Davis Graham have stressed the troubled relationship between affirmative action, on the one hand, and changes in immigration policy, on the other. Meanwhile, Timothy Minchin, Nancy MacLean, and Thomas Sugrue emphasize the importance of grassroots activism in the adoption of affirmative action programs and highlight the positive role of the federal government in the quest for racial justice in the workplace. Debate, as reflected in the work of Judith Stein and Herbert Hill, has also raged over the role of organized labor with respect to workplace civil rights within the broader context of public policy and political development.