Arthur Fletcher, 80, ‘Father of Affirmative Action’
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Arthur Fletcher, an adviser to Republican presidents and an early booster of affirmative action, died of natural causes Tuesday at his Washington, D.C., home. He was 80.
Fletcher served as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush.
As an official in Nixon’s Labor Department, Fletcher in 1969 administered the “revised Philadelphia plan,” which set and enforced equal opportunity employment standards for companies with federal contracts and their labor unions.
After that, Ford, Reagan and Mr. Bush appointed him to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which he chaired from 1990 to 1993.
Fletcher, dubbed “the father of affirmative action,” was also a delegate to the United Nations, executive director of the United Negro College Fund, and the first black candidate for statewide office in Washington.
Fletcher was shot in World War II, where he fought in an Army tanker division for General George Patton, friends said. Before entering politics, Fletcher was a defensive end for the Baltimore Colts – one of that professional football team’s first black players – and the Los Angeles Rams.
