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John G. Feild, 83; U.S. Official Enforced Affirmative Action Laws

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From Times Staff and Wire Reports

John G. Feild, 83, executive director of the President’s Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity during the Kennedy administration, died July 15 after a heart attack at a hospital in Raleigh, N.C.

Over his 50-year career, Feild lobbied for and enforced the earliest affirmative action laws in the country. He also opened up jobs for African Americans and women in government and federal contracting and developed an affirmative action plan for the Defense Department.

One of his first cases involved a defense plant in Georgia that employed 20,000 people but had no African Americans in white-collar jobs. An Air Force compliance officer had been trying for several years to resolve the situation, but Feild settled it in two months.

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Born in Little Rock, Ark., Feild grew up in Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University there. He served in the Army in India and China during World War II.

In 1952 while working for the city of Toledo, Ohio, he helped persuade the City Council to adopt the nation’s first fair employment practices law, which was later adopted statewide. He later became the first director of Michigan’s Fair Employment Practices Commission.

After leaving the Kennedy administration, Feild worked for the Defense Department at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and later for the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

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