Labor-market patterns since the passage of the Humphrey-Hawkins Act illustrate that without funding for the types of federal jobs programs that civil rights leaders like Coretta Scott King and Hawkins sought in the original bill, it’s hard to make progress toward closing those gaps, according to William Darity, Jr., an economics professor at Duke University.

“To make Humphrey-Hawkins a reality, there needs to be additional legislation that provides a financial basis for supporting the intent of the law,” Darity said.

Otherwise, “the law of the land can go unheeded,” he said. “In the experience of Black America, that’s clearly been the case.”

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