Arthur Fletcher, an adviser to Republican presidents, an early booster of affirmative action and author of the United Negro College Fund’s slogan “A mind is a terrible thing to waste,” died of natural causes Tuesday at his Washington, D.C., home. He was 80.
Fletcher served as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
As an official in Nixon’s Labor Department, Fletcher in 1969 administered the “revised Philadelphia plan,” which set and enforced equal opportunity employment standards for companies with federal contracts and their labor unions.
After that, Ford, Reagan and Bush appointed him to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, which he led from 1990 to 1993.
Fletcher, dubbed “the father of affirmative action,” was also a delegate to the United Nations, executive director of the United Negro College Fund, owner of consulting and food services businesses and the first black candidate for statewide office in Washington.
Associated Press
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