Civil Rights Act

an act pa ed by Congre over President Johnson’s veto April 9, 1866, aiming to place the negro on the same civil footing as the whites. Its principal section provided that all persons born in the United States, and not subjected to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, were to be recognized as citizens of the United States. The violation of this act was made a misdemeanor to be considered by the Federal courts alone. The President was given power to enforce the act by special or military force. The controversy over the constitutionality of the act led to the framing of the Fourteenth Amendment, pa ed June 13, 1866. After this, a more stringent act to secure the civil rights of the negro was pa ed in 1875. But the Supreme Court in 1883 declared its most important sections unconstitutional.