In 1964, Congress passed and signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which later became known as Title VII (Stewart & Brown, 2015, p. 81). This new law was created to remove discrimination from the workforce specifically race, color, national origin, religion, and sex. As with many new laws, the interpretation varies from person to person so many court cases came to elaborate of specific instances. One example is the trial between Griggs v. Duke Power Company. Griggs V. Duke Power Company Description Willi Griggs was an employee for Duke Power Company who seeked a transfer within the company. After Title VII was passed, Duke Power Company made it a requirement for transfers to higher paying jobs to have a high school diploma and pass two separate aptitude tests. Due to lim-ited education and hardship, African Americans were less likely to have a high school diploma and have the aptitude to pass these tests, which effectively restricted them for promotion. Mr. Griggs claimed that Duke Power Company was in …show more content…
The company claimed that the requirements were necessary to meet the qualifications of the position sought after, but it was later proven that those positions did not require those requirements. Mr. Griggs legal defense team claimed that “In-deed, the white employees hired before the requirements were imposed performed entirely satisfac-torily.” ( NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, 2016). Duke Power Company selection criteria was obviously flawed and wasn’t in accordance with the meaning of the Civil Rights Act. Their selection criteria limited people of a certain race and created a division among social classes. This was brought to the attention of African Ameri-cans but could have easily translated to the discrimination of women as well. Legal and Ethical