When a person is denied the opportunity to work, they are also denied their place in society. Without a decent income, people are unable to access other essential resources like housing and healthcare. Employment discrimination keeps marginalized populations – people with disabilities, racial minorities, people in poverty – trapped on the fringes of society.
Unfortunately, some types of employment discrimination are so ingrained that many people hardly think of them as discriminatory.
Our Work
Ending employment discrimination based on race, gender or disability has been an important part of the Law Center’s work since its founding.
A leader in fighting race discrimination, the Law Center won a series of multimillion-dollar lawsuits against steel manufacturers in Pennsylvania in the 1970s and fought to increase minority hiring in Philadelphia’s police force through the 1980s and into the 1990s. Great progress has been made in the decades since, with legions of private attorneys taking up the fight against race and sex discrimination.
Today, the Law Center focuses on overcoming barriers to employment for people with disabilities and people with prior criminal convictions.