The California Fair Employment Practices Act (FEPA) was a statute passed and enacted in 1959 that barred businesses and labor unions from discriminating against employees or job applicants based on their

color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are associ ...

national origin National origin is the nation where a person was born, or where that person's ancestors came from. It also includes the diaspora of multi-ethnic states and societies that have a shared sense of common identity identical to that of a nation while ...

ancestry An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from whom ...

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, or

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

. Prior to being repealed and reenacted under the

California Fair Employment and Housing Act The California Fair Employment and Housing Act of 1959, codified as Government Code §§12900 - 12996, is a California statute used to fight sexual harassment and other forms of unlawful discrimination in employment and housing, which was passed on ...

in 1980 the law was codified under part 4.5 of the Labor Code. The FEPA as well as similar legislation passed earlier in other states (notably

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

) drew its inspiration from the

Fair Employment Practices Commission The Fair Employment Practice Committee (FEPC) was created in 1941 in the United States to implement Executive Order 8802 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt "banning discriminatory employment practices by Federal agencies and all unions and comp ...

(FEPC) set up by the federal government during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Upon the disbandment of the FEPC in 1945,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

assemblymen

Augustus F. Hawkins Augustus Freeman Hawkins (August 31, 1907 – November 10, 2007) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served in the California State Assembly from 1935 to 1963 and the U.S. House Of Representatives from 1963 to 1991. Over the ...

and

William Byron Rumford William Byron Rumford (February 2, 1908 – June 12, 1986) was an American pharmacist and politician. He was the first African American elected to a state public office in Northern California. Family background Rumford was born in Courtland ...

(both members of the

California Democratic Party The California Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in Sacramento. With 43.5% of the state's registered voters as of 2018, the Democratic Party has the highest number of r ...

) led the effort to pass fair employment legislation in the state. Hawkins drafted the initial legislative proposal in 1945, but would alternate with Rumford in introducing a fair employment bill during each succeeding session from 1945 to 1959. The bill that was passed and signed into law by Governor

Pat Brown Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown (April 21, 1905 – February 16, 1996) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he w ...

in 1959 was authored by Augustus F. Hawkins. In 1946, a fair employment practices measure that would have created a statewide commission to enforce the proposed provisions appeared on the ballot as Proposition 11, but was decisively defeated. From that point onward, supporters of a statewide fair employment practices commission focused their efforts on getting a bill passed in the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is a bicameral state legislature consisting of a lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members; and an upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members. Both houses of the Legisla ...

. Nevertheless, the bills introduced by assemblymen Augustus F. Hawkins and Byron Rumford failed to gain traction until the emergence of the California Committee for Fair Employment Practices in 1954. It brought together a coalition of religious, community, civil rights, and labor groups to exert popular pressure on legislators.Thomas and Garrett, ''The Impact of Affirmative Action: Policies and Consequences in California'', Rowman Altamira, 1999, p. 38 During this time period California was also undergoing a general shift in political attitudes that would have far-reaching ramifications for the future of fair employment legislation. 1959 marked a turning point in California state politics with the Democratic Party beginning a period of electoral dominance over the

California Republican Party The California Republican Party (CAGOP) is the affiliate of the United States Republican Party in the U.S. state of California. The party is based in Sacramento and is led by chair Jessica Millan Patterson. As of October 2020, Republicans repre ...

in California State Legislature races. With Pat Brown elected

Governor of California The governor of California is the head of government of the U.S. state of California. The governor is the commander-in-chief of the California National Guard and the California State Guard. Established in the Constitution of California, the g ...

in 1958 it also marked the first time since 1883 that the Democrats had control over both chambers of the legislature and the state executive office. With this new political power the Democrats were able to secure the passage of Hawkins' proposal through the legislature by April of that year. Governor Pat Brown signed the FEPA into law on April 16, 1959 and it became effective a few months later on September 18, 1959. In a press release summarizing some of the statute's main provisions, Hawkins wrote that the FEPA "creates as a new division in the Department of Industrial Relations a State Fair Employment Practices Commission of five members. Powers of the Commission include receiving, investigating, hearing and passing on complaints involving discrimination. It has the power to issue orders to eliminate discrimination if found to exist." He also specified in the same release that "subject employers are those employing five or more persons." In 1970, the Fair Employment Practices Act was amended to include a protection against gender discrimination.

References

{{Reflist Fair Employment Practices Act, California Anti-discrimination law in the United States