Arthur Fletcher

For other people of the same name, see Arthur Fletcher (disambiguation).

Arthur Fletcher (December 22, 1924 in Phoenix, Arizona – July 12, 2005 in Washington DC) was an American government official, widely referred to as the "father of affirmative action" as he was largely responsible for the Revised Philadelphia Plan.

Life and career

Fletcher obtained a degree from distance learning school La Salle Extension University.^[1]

He ran for Lieutenant Governor of Washington State in 1968, losing to John Cherberg.^[2] During the campaign, his driver and bodyguard was Ted Bundy, who was active in Republican Party politics in the late 1960s through early 1970s.^[3]

An African American and a Republican, he served in the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations.^[4]

In 1978 he stood unsuccessfully for Mayor of Washington, D. C., losing to Marion Barry.^[5] In 1995, he briefly pursued a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.^[6]

Numbers of his fellow Republicans were often at odds with the affirmative action policies which Fletcher initiated.^[7]

As head of the United Negro College Fund, he coined their famous slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste."^[8]

References

^ Holley, Joe (July 14, 2005). Affirmative Action Pioneer Advised GOP Presidents. Washington Post
^ Mcgann, Chris (July 12, 2005)
^ Rule, Ann. The Stranger Beside Me pg. 15. 1980. Penguin Putnam. New York, NY.
^ NPR obituary, in RealAudio or for Windows Media Player. Accessed 20 July 2005.
^ "Barry Gets 71 Pct. for Mayor of D.C.". Youngstown Vindicator, via Google News. Associated Press. November 8, 1978. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=829JAAAAIBAJ&sjid=kIQMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2394,3008457&dq=marion-barry&hl=en.
^ NPR commentary by his granddaughter, KUOW-FM reporter and producer Phyllis Fletcher. Accessed 20 June 2006.
^ Presidential adviser Arthur Fletcher, 80, dies, obituary on MSN. Accessed 20 July 2005.
^ Arthur Fletcher on HistoryMakers.com. Accessed 20 July 2005.

Affirmative action in the United States

Supreme Court decisions	Brown v. Board of Education (1954) • Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) • United Steelworkers v. Weber (1979) • Fullilove v. Klutznick (1980) • Wygant v. Jackson Board of Education (1986) • City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989) • Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña (1995) • Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) • Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) • Parents v. Seattle (2007) • Ricci v. DeStefano (2009)

Federal legislation and edicts	Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (1868) • Executive Order 10925 (1961) • Civil Rights Act of 1964 • Executive Order 11246 (1965)

State initiatives	Proposition 209 (CA, 1996) • Initiative 200 (WA, 1998) • Proposal 2 (MI, 2006) • Initiative 424 (NE, 2008)

People	Ward Connerly • Arthur Fletcher

Persondata
Name	Fletcher, Arthur
Alternative names
Short description	American politician
Date of birth	December 22, 1924
Place of birth
Date of death	July 12, 2005
Place of death