6 March 1961
Executive Order 10925 requires affirmative action in federal contracting
United States
Kennedy signed Executive Order 10925 on 6 March 1961. For covered government contracts entered after the order became effective, it required a clause obliging contractors to take affirmative action in employment without regard to race, creed, color or national origin, including recruitment, pay and training.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The order became effective thirty days after signing; section 303 allowed exemptions for specified contracts and classes of contracts. Its use of “affirmative action” is a specific federal employment-policy usage. The sheets’ “affirmative action since 1492” is an interpretive frame for accumulated white advantage, not the starting date of this formal policy or one continuous legal program.