# Executive Order 11197 *Executive order issued by President Johnson on February 5, 1965, establishing the President's Council on Equal Opportunity.* **Executive Order 11197** is a presidential order of February 5, 1965, that created the [[President's Council on Equal Opportunity]].[^1] Its text names the [[Vice President of the United States]] as the Council's chairman.[^1] The project's dossier, quoting the order's full text, records that President Johnson issued it and that Vice President Humphrey thereby chaired the Council.[^2] The order was in force for a short period. On September 24, 1965, 231 days after it was issued, [[Executive Order 11247]] revoked it, effective thirty days later. That order moved the [[Title VI]] coordination function and the Council's records to the Attorney General.[^2] The record in this pack establishes the order's date and its chairmanship provision. It also establishes the ground the successor order gave for the transfer.[^1][^2] It does not establish any other reason for either order. The dossier notes that the standard secondary reading ties the timing of Executive Order 11247 to the Watts riots of August 11–16, 1965. The successor order itself gives only the legal character of the work as its ground, and the pack carries no source for the secondary reading.[^2] ## What Executive Order 11197, *Establishing the President's Council on Equal Opportunity*, provides for "The Vice President of the United States, who shall be the chairman of the Council."[^1] In the project's dossier, the order is identified as the instrument under which the Vice President held the federal coordinating role for civil rights in 1965.[^2] ## When - **February 5, 1965:** President Johnson issues Executive Order 11197, creating the President's Council on Equal Opportunity with the Vice President as chairman.[^1][^2] - **September 24, 1965:** Executive Order 11247 revokes Executive Order 11197, effective thirty days later. It transfers the Title VI coordination function and the Council's records to the Attorney General.[^2] The stated ground is that the issues "will be predominantly legal in character." The order also describes the Attorney General as "the chief law officer of the Federal Government."[^2] - The interval between the two orders is 231 days.[^2] ## In the at-issue record - **AI-Humphrey-002 (Humphrey package).** The at-issue pair sets two orders side by side. The first is the February 5, 1965 order that made the Vice President chairman of the Council.[^1] The second is the September 24, 1965 order that ended the Council and gave its function to the Attorney General, on the stated ground that the work would be "predominantly legal in character."[^2] The pair's anchor is a 2025 presidential action, *Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy*.[^3] The at-issue record describes it as relocating the same function again, sixty-one years later, by the same type of instrument.[^3] ## Notes [^1]: The President of the United States, *Executive Order 11197: Establishing the President's Council on Equal Opportunity* (February 5, 1965) — establishes the Council and provides that the Vice President of the United States shall be its chairman. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-11197-establishing-the-presidents-council-equal-opportunity [^2]: Project dossier, *HHH Waverly Apex Dossier*, §IV.6, "EO 11197 and EO 11247 (1965)" (September 2, 2026; validated, quoting both orders from full text) — issuing president, the September 24, 1965 revocation effective thirty days later, the Title VI and records transfer to the Attorney General, the orders' stated grounds, the 231-day interval, and the note on the secondary Watts reading. The pack carries no URL for this source or for the text of Executive Order 11247. [^3]: The White House, *Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy* (April 2025) — the 2025 presidential action used as the at-issue pair's anchor. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy