It grants the federal government the authority to punish the denial of equal protection or privileges and immunities. In addition, the statute bestows on the president the power to suspend habeas corpus and to use the military against anti-civil rights conspiracies. October 1871 President Grant, acting under the authority of the Ku Klux Klan Act, imposes martial law and suspends the writ of habeas corpus in South Carolina. A redeemer government is elected in Texas. Fall 1874 Democrats win control of both houses of Congress for the first time since before the Civil War.
Redeemer governments win control in Arkansas and Alabama.
The outgoing Republican Congress enacts the Civil Rights Act of 1875, long advocated by Senator Charles Sumner, who died shortly before its passage. It outlaws racial segregation in all public accommodations regulated by law, such as hotels, theaters, steamships, and railroads. The U.S. Supreme Court will rule the law unconstitutional in 1883. A redeemer government is elected in Mississippi. Samuel Tilden, the Democratic presidential nominee, wins a narrow majority of the popular vote against Rutherford Hayes, the Republican nominee.