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The Civil Rights Act of 1866 granted legal rights to all citizens born in the US, regardless of race or previous slavery. It did not extend social rights or voting rights to ex-slaves, but imposed penalties for denying specified rights. The law required all state and local governments to enforce it, with federal oversight and the possibility of military force.
The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was a piece of legislation passed by the United States Congress that declared everyone born in the United States a citizen and eligible for certain anti-discrimination protections. The law made it a crime to deny any citizen these rights and allowed the federal government to oversee each state’s enforcement of the law. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was one of the first laws passed after the abolition of slavery to grant those born in the United States certain legal rights regardless of their skin color.
On April 9, 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, overriding President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the bill. The law stated that regardless of a person’s race or previous slavery, a person born in the United States had the same civil rights as anyone else. The intention of the law was to grant former slaves these rights; it did not provide the same for Native Americans.
The term civil rights, which today typically includes legal, political, and social rights, included for the purposes of this law only legal rights. These rights included the ability to enter into and uphold contracts, act as a witness in a court of law, initiate a lawsuit, or have a lawsuit filed against them. It also extended property rights to anyone born in the United States, including the ability to sell, own, lease, buy, and inherit real estate, land, or property. The law also required that all citizens be equally punished for the same crime; anyone caught stealing, for example, would be penalized equally, regardless of skin color.
While granting each citizen what were then known as civil rights, the law did not allow ex-slaves to vote in elections and did not extend any social rights. However, he instituted what was then considered excessive penalties for any person or official who denied someone specified rights. Going against, failing to report infractions, or failing to comply with this law was made a misdemeanor and punishable by up to one year in prison, a $1,000 fine, or both.
This law required all state and local governments to abide by and enforce the Civil Rights Act of 1866. To ensure that this happened, it gave the federal government and the President himself the power to oversee any case involving the law, as well as the ability to force a judge or other government official to rule on specific cases; the omission entailed a financial penalty and the possibility of dismissal from office. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 also allowed for the use of military force to aid in enforcement, and the Supreme Court had the final say in each case.
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