Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was the first piece of federal civil rights legislation to be enacted into law. After the American Civil War (1861–65), southern states resisted the new social status of freed blacks by enacting Black Codes . Black Codes were state laws aimed at limiting the rights and freedoms of blacks and avoiding their integration into white society. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 in an attempt to establish and protect the rights of blacks against such measures.

The Act established the first definition of American citizenship, basing it on birth within the United States. It then set forth rights and privileges guaranteed to all citizens, regardless of race or color. Among them were the ability to make contracts, to sue others, to inherit, purchase, lease, or sell property, and to have access to court procedures. The act asserted that no state or local law could restrict these rights, and it authorized federal prosecution of those who attempted to prevent citizens from exercising those rights.

The bill was authored by U.S. senator Lyman Trumbull (1813–1896) of Illinois . Trumbull was a moderate Republican who had initially supported the mild Reconstruction policies of President Andrew Johnson (1808–1875; served 1865–69); these policies were designed to bring the secessionist South back into the federal Union by a fair and just process. Interracial violence, however, had risen to such levels

that Trumbull became a strong advocate of federal legislation to protect the civil rights of blacks.

There were many radical Republicans who sought to strengthen the bill by adding protection for black voting rights and continuous federal scrutiny of state and local actions. The bill, however, passed both houses of Congress with nearly unanimous support in February 1866 without such additional measures. President Johnson rejected the bill with a presidential veto. On April 9, 1866, Congress overrode the veto, making the Civil Rights Act the first piece of legislation to be passed in spite of a presidential veto.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 proved to be difficult to enforce. Deliberation over the bill, however, contributed to Congress's decision to prepare a constitutional amendment to provide an adequate foundation for civil rights legislation. The Fourteenth Amendment , proposed later that year and adopted in 1868, supplied a permanent federal definition of American and state citizenship and strengthened the equal protection implications of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Supreme Court interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, however, would enable states to treat blacks unequally under the law until the civil rights movement in the middle of the twentieth century.