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Title Vii And 42 U.S.C. § 1981: Two Independent Solutions

University of Richmond Law Review

Two major vehicles for redressing private racial discrimination are Title VII and 42 U.S.C. § 1981. In 1968 the Supreme Court, in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., ruled that section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 18662 applied to private acts of discrimination. The plaintiff in Jones sought relief against a private real estate company under 42 U.S.C. § 1982. The Court found that the substance of sections 1981 and 1982 was to be found in its predecessor, section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which was intended "to prohibit all racially motivated deprivations of the …