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Equal employment opportunity first was addressed in 1943 when the Governor appointed the Illinois Interracial Commission. This agency's name was changed to the Commission on Human Relations by the legislature in 1951; see RG 305.000. Responsibility shifted from mere study and reporting functions to receiving, investigating, and adjudicating complaints in 1961 when the Fair Employment Practices Commission was created to replace the Commission on Human Relations. This new agency was to reduce employment opportunity inequities based on race, color, religion, national origin, or ancestry. It was composed of five members appointed by the Governor. In addition to enforcing equal employment opportunity legislation it was responsible also for conducting relevant research concerning the problem and for promoting voluntary citizen compliance (L. 1961, pp. 1845-1854).
The Department of Equal Employment Opportunity was established by the General Assembly in 1978. This new department assumed equal employment opportunity and affirmative action programs which previously had been carried out by the state's Department of Personnel. For each state agency the Department of Equal Employment Opportunity implemented compliance procedures for the rules and regulations it promulgated. The new department investigated complaints, conducted public hearings regarding them, and issued recommendations for methods of remedy to those state agencies found not in compliance. In this work the department was aided by the Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Council. The council was composed of fifteen interested public members who were appointed by the Governor (P.A. 80-1455, pp. 1740-1747).
A year later the department and its advisory council were replaced by the Department of Human Rights and the Human Rights Commission. The Department of Human Rights was created to enforce and the Human Rights Commission was made to adjudicate discrimination laws in state and local government as well as the private sector. Causes of discrimination were broadened to include race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, physical or mental handicap, and unfavorable discharge from military service in connection with employment, real estate transactions, access to financial credit, and public accommodations. Together the Department of Human Rights and the Human Rights Commission took over all of the functions of the Fair Employment Practices Commission and the Department of Equal Employment Opportunity (P.A. 81-1216, pp. 4867-4881).
220.001
FAIR EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES. 1962-1979. 7.5 cu. ft. No index.
Minutes concern commission rules and regulations, legislation affecting the commission, staff investigations of alleged cases of discrimination, commission findings, personnel matters, and funding and appropriations. Often included with the minutes are copies of complaints, investigative reports, commission orders, activity reports, and related memoranda and correspondence.
220.002
AGENCY ANNUAL AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PLANS. 1977-1984. 8 cu. ft. No index.
Annual affirmative action plans of the agencies of state government include program certification forms; program responsibility statements; agency profiles; agency organizational charts; listings of job titles by job categories; listings of policy dissemination methods; statistical analyses of employee distributions, salaries, and personnel transactions; affirmative action program goals with timetables; outlines of affirmative action complaint procedures; and listings of affirmative action and equal employment opportunity laws applicable to agencies. Also included are Department of Human Rights plan review forms, agency quarterly status reports, Department of Human Rights on-site progress reviews, and related memoranda and correspondence.
220.003
ADMINISTRATIVE FILES. 1964-1982. 16.25 cu. ft. No index.
Files include department rules, regulations, guidelines, and procedures, draft copies of amendments to the Fair Employment Practices Act, policy announcements, weekly personnel itineraries, case docket sheets, court opinions, Attorney General opinions, monthly divisional activity reports, annual and interim reports to the Governor, educational and training program materials, applications to study female and minority employment in state government, minutes of meetings of agency equal employment opportunity officers, complaint reports, affirmative action compliance reports for all state agencies, and related correspondence.
220.004
EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY GRANT PROJECT FILES. 1967-1970. 2 cu. ft. No index.
Files concern a federally funded grant project the department conducted in the southern part of the state with headquarters in Carbondale. Files include minutes of the Fair Employment Practices Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Advisory Committee and the Carbondale Employment Resource Center, project questionnaires distributed to area employers, copies of area discrimination complaints, summaries of employer investigations, progress reports, and related memoranda and correspondence.
These records are available at the Illinois State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State.
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