Civil Rights Acts

The Civil Rights Acts of U.S. congressional legislation were passed to enforce constitutional rights for minorities. The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth

Amendments to the Constitution, passed in the late 1860s immediately after the Civil War, provided the constitutional basis for the emancipation of slaves and granted them the full set of rights provided to other citizens. However, these amendments were meaningless in the face of opposition from the states, especially those of the former Confederacy. The white people of the South in particular, and most of the nation in general, were resistant to the idea that blacks should be allowed to freely participate in the wider, white-dominated society. The Civil Rights Acts were passed to enforce the equality of citizenship that the Amendments promised.

The first Civil Rights Act was passed in 1866, in an attempt to preempt southern whites' attempts to re-enslave the blacks in all but name. Several of the states had passed Black Codes, which required former slaves to sign up yearly for jobs or leave the state and which denied them voting and legal rights. In response, the Congress passed (over the veto of President Andrew Johnson) the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition of servitude. As citizens they could make and enforce contracts, sue and be sued, give evidence in court, and inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property. Persons who denied these rights to other individuals were guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, faced a fine not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding one year, or both.

This early Civil Rights Act was a part of a larger effort by Congress to integrate the newly freed slaves into the nation, at least politically. This effort, known as Reconstruction, mainly involved ongoing occupation of the South by federal troops, which allowed blacks to exercise political power. Governments elected by blacks and their white allies controlled several states in the region during this period.

This power was destined not to last, however. As the troops were withdrawn, whites rapidly regained power, through legal means and, very often, through intimidation and violence. Once back in power, the whites disenfranchised and marginalized the blacks.

By 1896, the Supreme Court endorsed the complete disenfranchisement of blacks that occurred after [Page 340]the end of Reconstruction. Their ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, that separate but equal facilities for minorities met the requirements of the law, cemented the Jim Crow laws that regulated the lives of blacks.

The 1866 Civil Rights Act was a powerful statement of equality, but the Congress provided no public enforcement mechanism. Only individuals had any right to redress under the legislation. That is, the federal government did not have the power to force compliance on violators of the law. This power was left to the private individual whose rights were violated. This essentially eviscerated the law. First, most of the abuses took place against poor freedmen with little access to the legal system. Even if they were able to get into the courts, they were unlikely to get a sympathetic hearing from the white, southern judges who would hear the case, even in federal court.

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