PREVIOUS ARTICLE ALL CONTENTS Next ARTICLE

The Crusade for Equality in the Workplace: The Griggs v. Duke Power Story, Robert Belton

Reviewed by Katherine Turk

BUY

 

This book examines the long history of Griggs v. Duke Power Company, the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded minority rights at work by affirming the disparate impact theory of discrimination. Griggs remade es­sential knowledge about the nature of workplace discrimination and its rem­edies by subjecting to scrutiny the outcomes produced by even facially race-­neutral policies, thus displacing the previous sole focus on identifying bias in employers’ motives. Beginning in the years when Title VII of the Civil Rights Act “had more bones than flesh” (p. 45), Robert Belton analyzes the Griggs decision to provide a window into the campaigns and conflicts that cemented legal conceptions of equality and discrimination. A biography of the disparate impact theory, The Crusade for Equality in the Workplace traces the origins, establishment, and long-term prospects of an opinion that reset the course of the workplace rights revolution.

With care and precision, Belton unfolds the story of Griggs v. Duke Power Company: its origins, development, and legacy. Exhaustively researched, The Crusade for Equality in the Workplace captures the perspectives of the many actors who had a hand in the Griggs decision’s passage and interpretation: interest groups, attorne

To continue reading, see options above.

More by This Author

About PSQ's Editor

ROBERT Y. SHAPIRO

Full Access

Join the Academy of Political Science and automatically receive Political Science Quarterly.

CONFERENCES & EVENTS

Academy Forum | The Transatlantic Relationship and the Russia-Ukraine War
January 9, 2025
4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. ET
WEBINAR

MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT VIEW ALL EVENTS

Editor’s spotlight

Virtual Issue

Introduction: Black Power and the Civil Rights Agendas of Charles V. Hamilton
Marylena Mantas and Robert Y. Shapiro

MORE ABOUT THIS TOPIC

Search the Archives

Publishing since 1886, PSQ is the most widely read and accessible scholarly journal with distinguished contributors such as: Lisa Anderson, Robert A. Dahl, Samuel P. Huntington, Robert Jervis, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Theda Skocpol, Woodrow Wilson

view additional issues

Most read

Articles | Book reviews

Understanding the Bush Doctrine
Robert Jervis

The Study of Administration
Woodrow Wilson

Notes on Roosevelt's "Quarantine" Speech
Dorothy Borg

view all

New APS Book

Political Conflict in American Politics   POLITICAL CONFLICT IN AMERICAN POLITICS

About US

Academy of Political Science

The Academy of Political Science, promotes objective, scholarly analyses of political, social, and economic issues. Through its conferences and publications APS provides analysis and insight into both domestic and foreign policy issues.

Political Science Quarterly

With neither an ideological nor a partisan bias, PSQ looks at facts and analyzes data objectively to help readers understand what is really going on in national and world affairs.

Stay Connected

newsstand locator
About APS