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By John P. Mahoney
Martin Luther King Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the gains Black/African Americans have made in the almost five decades since the civil rights leader made his “I have a dream” speech. In the federal government, for example, blacks have made significant advances.
Between the 2001 and 2010 fiscal years, the number of Blacks or African Americans employed by the federal government rose by over 71,000 – or 26.5 percent – to 339,876, according to the Office of Personnel Management’s latest Federal Equal Recruitment Opportunity Program (FEORP) annual report.
While the number of Black employees in the federal government is risings, their rate of representation has declined. By the 2010 fiscal year, Blacks or African Americans accounted for 17.7 percent of the federal workforce, down from fiscal year 2008’s high of 17.9 percent and not much higher from fiscal year 2000’s rate of 17.6 percent, according to the FEORP reports (See Chart).
While federal laws and Executive Branch initiatives have cleared the path for Blacks/African Americans’ advancement in the federal workforce, some discriminatory hurdles remain. In the 2010 fiscal year, Black/African American federal employees filed 4,232 discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). More than 1,500 of those complaints concerned harassment issues and over 900 dealt with disciplinary actions, according to the EEOC’s latest Annual Report on the Federal Work Force.
For Blacks/African Americans to continue to make gains in the federal civil service, they need to continue to assert their rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-1, et seq., the crown jewel of the Civil Rights Movement that Dr. King led and gave his life for in the struggle for equality. This law prohibits federal agencies from taking a person’s race or color into consideration when making decisions on hiring, firing, promoting, training, lay offs, and providing benefits. Neither can employers harass – or allow co-workers to harass – employees because of their race or color or retaliate against those who oppose or complain about discrimination in the workplace.
Federal employees in Washington, D.C. or elsewhere in the world who believe discriminatory racial factors are holding back their career advancement or job satisfaction should consult with a federal employment lawyer. Tully Rickey PLLC’s EEOC attorneys in Washington, D.C. can help Black/African American employees show how discrimination has impacted their employment and seek damages or obtain the positions they deserve.
John P. Mahoney, a partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC in Washington D.C. and Chair of the Firm’s Labor & Employment Law Practice Group, focuses on representing federal employees, contractors, agencies, unions, and employee associations in federal sector labor, employment, discrimination, and national security law. He can be reached at jmahoney@fedattorney.com.
