Did the Avengers ever have an Affirmative Action program?

They sure did. It was 1978 and the Avengers had just defeated the nigh-omnipotent Korvac, using just about every member they ever had, with help from Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and the old Guardians of the Galaxy team. Government liaison Henry Peter Gyrich, legendary for being unyielding, argued it was too hard for the feds to keep track of dozens of Avengers, so he ordered the team to trim the membership down to seven.

Individual Avengers decided to come or go and the lineup included Captain America, Iron Man, the Wasp, the Scarlet Witch, the Vision and the Beast. Gyrich then mandated that they instate the Falcon as a member as the government wanted to offer opportunities to more minorities (the only other black member at the time, the Black Panther, was unable to serve).

Quicksilver immediately claimed this was ridiculous, since the Avengers had many non-real world minorities on the team, including mutants and a Norse god, pointing out that superheroes themselves are a minority. Longtime member Hawkeye was pissy he got bumped in favor of the Falcon, whom not that many people knew at that point. (This was funny because Hawkeye had a history of quitting and coming back multiple times so he might have just left anyway.)

The Falcon served for a short period and resigned. He noted a few times that he felt like a token and was overshadowed by his more powerful teammates. He returned sporadically over the years. This was actually a fun period in Avengers history so the Falcon was around for some memorable stories.

The issue raised its head again in 2000 when the team again had to reorganize. The Avengers were facing protestors who demanded more people of color join the team but in some cognitive dissonance, wanted the mutants out. The new government liaison, Duane Freeman, again ordered that they find an African American or Latino. A few people argued that their squads were too small to admit an accurate representation of America’s various groups. The team’s reserve people of color — the Black Panther, Photon, Living Lightning and Firebird — were unavailable, so Freeman suggested they recruit Triathlon, a black superhero the Avengers fought with but were suspicious about due to his ties to the shady religion the Triune Understanding (a thinly veiled Church of Scientology).

When Iron Man balked, Freeman pointed out that he was objecting to a potential member’s religion and said if the team refused membership to a qualified black candidate, the government would shut them down. (Freeman was much more reasonable than Gyrich but you didn’t dare cross him. In the same issue, he actually stood up to Thor over a related issue and kept his head, with Thor instead stomping out of Avengers Mansion in a huff, screaming and quitting and causing a spectacle.)

Cooler heads prevailed and the team reorganized with Triathlon and familiar faces Iron Man, the Wasp, Goliath, the Scarlet Witch, Warbird and She-Hulk. Triathlon served for somewhat longer than the Falcon and turned out to be a pretty good guy, despite the members’ suspicions.