It goes back to the Nixon admin. and the letter of agreement signed by AT&T with the DoJ. I worked in the Bell System at the time, NY Tel.
At that time, AT&T was the largest private employer in the free world. In exchange for ending an anti-trust suit by the DoJ, the company agreed to impliment an Affirmative Action program under the watchful eye of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
(Those of us who were the great unwashed in the System called the EEOC the Eventual Elimination Of Caucasians)
Once the gov’t had AT&T in its pocket, it was only a matter of time before the rest of big business fell in line.....and they did.
PS, The time you’re talking about was just after the breakup of AT&T and the Bell System. AT&T as well as all the baby bells were going through labor problems due to their poor handling of that task.
When I started at AT&T the Western Electric name was still on the building.
i got caught up in that crap
september 1973 my old man got me in to test for a motorized messenger at Pac tel, i tested very high, but didnt get the job because i was the wrong color, now fast forward to early 1979, my brother, his wife and my wife and me all went to take a test for jobs, all three got jobs but me, oh and my brother skin tone is several shades darker then mine..