Complex sentence: The decisions came to be known as affirmative action in which mandatory as well as voluntary programs affirmed the civil rights of people of color through positive actions to protect them from the present effects stemming from past discrimination.
Split into simpler sentences: The decisions came to be known as affirmative action in which mandatory, as well as voluntary programs, affirmed the civil rights of people of color. Furthermore, these affirmative action programs protected people of color from the present effects stemming from past discrimination.