Trump revokes Johnson-era contractor affirmative action order

President Donald Trump signs Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” on January 21, 2025. The order revokes Executive Order 11246, the 1965 Johnson administration order that required federal contractors to follow equal employment opportunity rules and affirmative action obligations.\n\nThe order tells the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to stop promoting diversity, stop holding contractors responsible for affirmative action, and stop allowing workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin. It also requires federal contracts and grants to include terms saying compliance with anti-discrimination law is material to payment decisions.\n\nThe event belongs in the racism timeline because it changes a major enforcement structure created during the civil rights era to address exclusion in federally connected employment. The administration frames the order as a move against race- and sex-based preferences, while civil rights and labor advocates describe the rollback as weakening tools used to detect and remedy systemic discrimination.