TheCivil Rights Act of 1875, sometimes called theEnforcement Act[a] or theForce Act, was aUnited States federal law enacted during theReconstruction era in response to civil rights violations against African Americans. The bill was passed by the43rd United States Congress and signed into law byPresidentUlysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875. The act was designed to "protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights", providing for equal treatment inpublic accommodations and public transportation and prohibiting exclusion fromjury service. It was originally drafted by SenatorCharles Sumner in 1870, but was not passed until shortly after Sumner's death in 1875. The law was not effectively enforced, partly because President Grant had favored different measures to help him suppress election-related violence against blacks andRepublicans in theSouthern United States.
The Reconstruction era ended with the resolution of the1876 presidential election, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last federal civil rights law enacted until the passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1957. In 1883, theSupreme Court ruled in theCivil Rights Cases that the public accommodation sections of the act were unconstitutional, saying Congress was not afforded control over private persons or corporations under theEqual Protection Clause. Parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later re-adopted in theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theCivil Rights Act of 1968, both of which cited theCommerce Clause as the source of Congress's power to regulate private actors.
TheMassachusetts Republican Party modeled the bill on their state's 1865 public accommodations act, the first such law in the nation. Since southern businesses often claimed an inability to serve African American customers because of the damage to their relations with companies in other states, Republicans argued that a national response was needed.[4]
President Grant had wanted an entirely different law to help him suppress election-related violence against blacks and Republicans in the South. Congress did not give him that, but instead wrote a law for equal rights to public accommodations that was passed as a memorial to Grant's bitterest enemy, the late Senator Charles Sumner.[5] Grant never commented on the 1875 law, and did nothing to enforce it, says historianJohn Hope Franklin.[6] Grant's Justice Department ignored it and did not send copies to US attorneys, says Franklin, while many federal judges called it unconstitutional before the Supreme Court shut it down. Franklin concludes regarding Grant and Hayes administrations, "The Civil Rights Act was never effectively enforced."[7] Public opinion was opposed, with the black community in support.[8] Historian Rayford Logan looking at newspaper editorials finds the press was overwhelmingly opposed.[9]
The Supreme Court, in an 8–1 decision, declared sections of the act unconstitutional in theCivil Rights Cases on October 15, 1883.JusticeJohn Marshall Harlan provided the lone dissent. The Court held theEqual Protection Clause within theFourteenth 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.[10][page needed] The Court also held that theThirteenth 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 federal civil rights bill signed into law until theCivil Rights Act of 1957, enacted during theCivil Rights Movement.
Gerber, Richard A.; Friedlander, Alan (2008).The Civil Rights Act of 1875: A Reexamination. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences.ISBN9781878508287.
Wilson, Kirt H. (2002).The Reconstruction Desegregation Debate: The Politics of Equality and the Rhetoric of Place, 1870-1875. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.ISBN9780870136177.
Avins, Alfred (May 1966). "The Civil Rights Act of 1875: Some Reflected Light on the Fourteenth Amendment and Public Accommodations".Columbia Law Review.66 (5):873–915.doi:10.2307/1121057.JSTOR1121057.
François, Anderson Bellegarde (Winter 2014). "The Brand of Inferiority: The Civil Rights Act of 1875, White Supremacy, and Affirmative Action".Howard Law Journal.57 (2):573–599.
Jager, Ronald B. (September 1969). "Charles Sumner, the Constitution, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875".The New England Quarterly.42 (3):350–372.doi:10.2307/363614.JSTOR363614.
McPherson, James M. (December 1965). "Abolitionists and the Civil Rights Act of 1875".Journal of American History.52 (3):493–510.doi:10.2307/1890844.JSTOR1890844.
Spackman, S. G. F. (December 1976). "American Federalism and the Civil Rights Act of 1875".Journal of American Studies.10 (3):313–328.doi:10.1017/s0021875800003182.S2CID144751982.
Weaver, Valeria W. (October 1969). "The Failure of Civil Rights 1875–1883 and its Repercussions".Journal of Negro History.54 (4):368–382.doi:10.2307/2716730.JSTOR2716730.S2CID149517761.
Congressional Record: House Proceedings, 1874 Provides an index to the "History of Senate Bills and Joint Resolutions" for House bill H.R. 796 during 1874. Retrieved November 18, 2012
History Crush: Charles Sumner, Prologue: Pieces of History, The National Archives.gov Provides a short biographical account of Sen. Charles Sumner including details surrounding his efforts to pass the Civil Rights bill in Congress. Includes images of Sumner, personal documents, and bill S. 1 that would later lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1875. Retrieved November 18, 2012
Digitized image of Charles Sumners' senate bill S. 1 as introduced during the43rd United States Congress. From the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved May 18, 2015
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