may 31, 1870 - Signs First Enforcement Act of 1870 prohibiting official and private limitations on the right to vote, including acts of intimidation; makes it a federal crime to form groups with the intent to violate citizens’ constitutional rights including by going “in disguise upon the public highways, or upon the premises of another.” The Act also made it a crime to knowingly violate Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which prohibited office-holding by former officials who had sworn to uphold the Constitution
Added to timeline:
Date:
may 31, 1870
Now
~ 156 years ago