The end of the Civil War marked a turning point in U.S. history. The destruction of slavery as a legal institution and the passage of the 14th and 15th Amendments promised to usher in a new era of American freedom and democracy. With the support of the U.S. Army and the Freedmen Office, millions of newly released African Americans gained access to property, education, and political participation for the first time. The federal government and thousands of volunteers rebuilt the South`s economy, built schools, banks, and hospitals for freed black families, and helped protect those families from white nationalist terrorism. [11] For one time, federal officials even helped implement Special Order No. 15, which required the redistribution of about 400,000 acres of confiscated land from Confederate planters. to newly liberated Black families in 40-acre segments. Perhaps one of the most significant changes that emerged from the Task Force was the shift from systemic cases being investigated and litigated in “pockets” within the Office and special services at headquarters to a decision that the EEOC should be able to address systemic discrimination in all field offices. with headquarters playing a supporting role for systemic programmes in the field. Report of the Task Force, at 6; Bericht 2016, am 1. To facilitate this fundamental change, the Task Force report included 100 recommendations focused on a national approach to identifying and investigating systemic issues.
Bericht 2016, am 1. The Task Force report recommended that: cooperation between offices (field and headquarters) should be encouraged; District offices should develop systemic plans; Data should be used and shared more effectively; The extension of investigations into individual charges to potential systemic cases should be encouraged, where appropriate. and the use of Commissioner`s charges and targeted investigations to prosecute systemic cases should be encouraged, where appropriate. Working Group Report, 11am-4pm. The Task Force report also recommended that the EEOC ensure that there are sufficient staff in each district office and that regional legal officers and headquarters staff from the Office of Field Programmes, the Office of the General Counsel and the Office of Research, Information and Planning (the EEOC data and research body, , from the EEOC, now called the Office of Enterprise Data and Analytics), which leads to an improvement in employees` systemic expertise. Report of the Working Group, 22, 25, 57-60. What can bridge the gap? The ABA Commission has proposed increased public funding for legal services for the poor – a proposal that is unlikely to resonate with the current government. Other proposals included the simplification of judicial procedures to facilitate the representation of litigants and the development of technological means to make legal assistance more cost-effective. The United States is a contradiction. Its founding principles embrace the ideals of freedom and equality, but it is a nation built on the systematic exclusion and oppression of communities of color.
From the beginning, so many of this country`s laws and public policies, which were supposed to serve as a framework to guide progress, were explicitly designed to prevent people of color from fully participating. Moreover, these legal constructs are not a relic of the pre-war past or Jim Crow, but are still part of the fabric of American politics. In 2016, the EEOC concluded that it had implemented the key recommendations of the Task Force report and was now able to investigate and address systemic cases in each district on specific priority issues based on the national strategies developed. 2016 Report, p. 3.4. Senior Systemic Investigators, Systems Coordinators and the National Systemic Program Manager meet regularly to coordinate investigations, review strategies and share information. Id., on the 14th Commissioner, indictments and directed investigations are often used by the EEOC to investigate and assess a full range of potential discrimination broader than what was filed in a single indictment. Id., am 21. The conduct of the indictment or investigation against the Commissioner is determined by the District Director, who has considerable discretion and autonomy as to the scope and limits of the case. Similarly, the District Director, in coordination with the Legal Department, determines how systemic investigations into allegations against individual accusers will be conducted. But the ABA did not consider how the organized bar association could develop and promote laws, policies, and practices to completely avoid legal problems while respecting people`s rights.