jan 1, 1870 - Enforcement Acts

Description:

Three bills passed by the United States Congress between 1870 and 1871. They were criminal codes that protected African-Americans’ right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. Passed under the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, the laws also allowed the federal government to intervene when states did not act to protect these rights. The acts passed following the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave full citizenship to anyone born in the United States or freed slaves, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which banned racial discrimination in voting.

Gave the president the power to suspend the constitution in parts of the South so that the US army could intervene directly and arrest the Klan members. (Writ of habeas corpus)

At the time, the lives of all newly freed slaves, as well as their political and economic rights, were being threatened. This threat led to the creation of the Enforcement Acts.

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