professor golubuff, what is the civil rights action? and a unit of the federal government of the united states government created in 1939, just before world war ii, and when it was clear that it was a part of the department of justice and when it was created, it was thought to be -- its charge to protect individual rights, fundamental individual rights. people were not exactly sure what that meant and what the first thought that event is the rights of workers trying to collectively bargain and organizing to the unions but when world war ii started, race became much more prominent in the political scene and the civil rights section started to think about how to protect the african-americans. as a result they started to think about how to protect the rights of african american workers, so the civil rights section during the 1940's takes a whole bunch of cases in which the rights of the workers are at stake and prosecute all kinds of employers for violations of the civil rights law. >> was it formed by an executive order or legislation? >>