The Civil Rights Act of 1875

Amid the voluminous archives of 19th Century civil rights history America is record of the passage of a civil rights bill introduced by a Senator from Massachusetts by the name of Charles Sumner. Senator Sumner introduced this bill in every congressional session from 1870 until his death in 1874 and it was not until after Sumner's death that President Ulysses S. Grant finally signed the bill into law in 1875. The Civil Rights Act of 1875, which was later deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, was a precursor to the landmark civil rights cases of Plessy v. Ferguson and eventually the infamous case of Brown v. The Board of Education. The nature of the congressional debates over Reconstruction and leading up to the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 revealed the dominance of the Radical Republicans and the determination of the Southern Democrats. And so, in addition to being a bill intended to end inequality among the races, the Civil Rights Act of 1875 represented the post-Civil War power struggle between the states and their attempt to establish compromise.

Early in the Civil War, Reconstruction emerged as an inevitable issue and as Northern victory neared, the issue attracted more and more attention. By January 1, 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed all slaves in "rebel-held" areas, the Northern objective shifted from preserving the Union to rebuilding the

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e did not share the Republican commitment to rebuilding the South. Johnson offered pardons to all who would take an oath of allegiance and he ordered abandoned plantations to be restored immediately to their former owners. In addition, he south to restore political rights to the Southern states as soon as possible, appointing a provisional governor who was required to call a constitutional convention that would draft a new state constitution outlawing slavery and disavowing secession (Kolchin). Southern states, unexpectedly encouraged by the new Southern Democrat in the White House, hurried to implement Johnson's plan and the new state governments passed a series of acts known as black codes, which severely restricted the rights of the newly freed slaves (Kolchin). When Congress reconvened from a long recess in December 1865, Republican leaders quickly voiced their disapproval and disagreement of Johnson's version of Reconstruction. The Republican majority in Congress refused to seat Southern representatives or to accept the legitimacy of the Southern state governments formed under Johnson's requirements. The debate over Reconstruction began and the program that emerged resulted from a series of compromises between the s
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