Constructing Affirmative Action treats the design and implementation of the Philadelphia Plan for Affirmative Action in the Building trades as a watershed moment in the origins of affirmative action. In the 1950s, the skilled building construction trade unions were notoriously segregated throughout the United States, with the vast majority of Black members confined to the less skilled "trowel" trades, and the coveted slots in the skilled trades largely passing from white father or uncle to white son or nephew.

The Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, through Vice Presidents Nixon and Johnson, attempted to force federal contractors to actively seek minority job applicants. With increased federal spending on construction, the vice presidents pushed the bureaucracy to enforce a non-discrimination clause in federal contracts, and were themselves pushed by outside actors and events. At first, the goal was tokenism: breaking the uniformity of whites in the skilled jobs. But civil rights leaders pushed for more. With riots breaking out at construction sites, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson successfully pushed Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, establishing the principle of fair employment.

The locus of activity now moved from elected officials to the bureaucrats themselves, sometimes acting beyond the intent of elected and appointed leaders. Empowered by the 1964 Act and executive orders, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance designed affirmative action programs tailored to individual cities. Through trial and error, federal officials ultimately developed the Cleveland and Philadelphia Operational Plans in 1967.

By challenging the established order, the Philadelphia Plan came under fire in Congress as a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Johnson administration, on its way out of office during 1968, did not fight for the Plan, but the incoming Nixon administration latched on to a revised version of the Philadelphia Plan and defended it against enemies in Congress and in court. Constructing Affirmative Action then examines the prolonged implementation of the Philadelphia Plan, its mandatory spin-offs and its voluntary knockoffs, and how the administration, Big Labor, and the civil rights leadership worked to pursue fair employment in the skilled building trades in the 1970s and beyond.