Civil Rights Act of 1875

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 (–337), sometimes called Enforcement Act or Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction era to guarantee African Americans equal treatment in public accommodations, public transportation, and to prevent being excluded from jury duty.  The bill was passed by the 43rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.  Several years later, the Supreme Court ruled in Civil Rights Cases (1833) that sections of the act were unconstitutional.

History of Act
Legislative History
The drafting of the bill was done in early 1870 by Senator Charles Sumner. It was with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, a prominent African-American who established the law department at Howard University. The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st United States Congress in 1870. The act was eventually passed by the 43rd Congress in February 1875 and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.

Constitutional challenge

The Supreme Court, in an 8 to 1 decision, declared the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases on October 15, 1883. Justice John Marshall Harlan provided the lone dissent. The Court held the Equal Protection Clause within the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits discrimination by the state and local government, but it does not give the federal government the power to prohibit discrimination by private individuals and organizations. The Court also held that the Thirteenth Amendment was meant to eliminate "the badge of slavery," but not to prohibit racial discrimination in public accommodations. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last civil rights bill to be signed into law in the United States until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

Legacy of law
The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is notable as one of the major pieces of legislation related to Reconstruction that were passed by Congress after the American Civil War.  These include the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the four Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868, the three Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871, and the three Constitutional Amendments adopted between 1865 and 1870.

Provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later adopted by Congress during the Civil Rights Movement as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This legislation relied on the Commerce Clause  in Article One of the Constitution of the United States.

References

Category:1875
Category:1870s in the United States 
Category:United States federal legislation