The Civil Rights Act of 1866

The Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed in March of that year by Radical Republicans in Congress over a veto by President Andrew Johnson, declared African Americans to be citizens and granted them equal protection of the laws in matters of contracts, lawsuits, trials, property transactions, and purchases, and it attached penalties for violations of these rights. The act was intended to prevent President Johnson and ex-Confederates in the South from continuing slavery-like practices under state laws known as the Black Codes or Jim Crow laws. Johnson claimed the act violated states' rights and discriminated against whites. The Act took effect over his veto on April 9, 1866. The act is important to this day in prohibiting racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing.

The Civil Rights Acts of 1871

Though known popularly as the Civil Rights Acts of 1871, this refers to the Enforcement Act of February 28, 1871, which amended the Enforcement Act of 1870, passed by Congress to overturn state laws preventing African Americans from voting in the South. The 1871 amendment sought to eliminate registration fraud. It also instituted federal procedures for supervising elections in the South, upon petition to the federal circuit court. The Enforcement Act of April 20, 1871, known as the "Ku Klux Klan Act," allowed president to use the militia and to suspend the right of habeas corpus in times when public safety was threatened, as by the wave of organized violence then spreading throughout the South.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 sought to guarantee freedom of access, regardless of race, to the "full and equal enjoyment" of inns, public conveyances and public places of amusement. Citizens were given the right to sue for personal damages. Federal courts were given exclusive jurisdiction over all cases arising under the act. Barring any qualified person from serving as a grand or petit juror was made a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is memorable as the last civil rights legislation passed until 1957. It was overturned in 1883 by the Supreme Court.

The Civil Rights Act if 1875 was rarely enforced and in 1883 it was overturned by a Supreme Court decision which found it to violate states' rights. In these "Civil Rights Cases" Justice Harlan gave a now-famous dissent, writing "I am of opinion that such discrimination is a badge of servitude, the imposition of which congress may prevent under its power, through appropriate legislation, to enforce the thirteenth Amendment; and consequently, without reference to its enlarged power under the fourteenth Amendment, the act of March 1, 1875, is not, in my judgment, repugnant to the constitution."

The Civil Rights Act of 1957

The Civil Rights Act of 1957 established the Commission on Civil Rights, which was mandated to study race relations in the United States. The act also created the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. The Attorney General was given the power to sue on behalf of blacks who suffered voting discrimination federal elections.

The Civil Rights Act of 1960

The Civil Rights Act of 1960 sought to overturn discriminatory registration practices in South. It lacked effective enforcement provisions.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the legislation most people think of when the term "Civil Rights Act" is invoked. Passed in the aftermath of the assassination of President Kennedy, its eleven titles combatted voter discrimination, funded school desegregation, renewed the Civil Rights Commission another four years, banned use of federal funds for schools or programs which discriminated, banned discrimination in employment and unions, barred federal courts from remanding civil rights cases back to state or local courts, established the right to a jury trial for in cases involving the act, and more.

Text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

The Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 established a system of federal registrars, under the direction of the U.S. Attorney General, to replace state officials in localities in which fewer than 50% of the adult population had voted in the previous general election. Literacy tests were outlawed and federal registrars were given the power to dismantle discriminatory practices such as literacy tests, as well as power to register citizens to vote.

Section 2 provides that "no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any state or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race of color.''

Section 5 prohibits states and portions of states from instituting any new voting procedures, including new districts, without first giving the attorney general a chance to object or getting a ruling from U.S. District Court in Washington that the change "does not have the purpose and will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color.''

The immediate impact of the act was that by the end of 1965, a quarter of a million new African American voters were registered, one third of them by federal examiners. The Voting Rights Act was renewed and extended in 1970, 1975, and 1982.

Full text of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The Civil Rights Act of 1968

The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, was enacted following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and was thought by many prior to his death to be unpassable. The act tackled the controversial area of discrimination in housing. The act covers three-quarters of all housing transactions, barring landlords from refusing to sell or rent on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, or gender. The one-quarter of transactions which are exempt are composed of owner-occupants of multi-family dwellings (up to three rental units) and owners of three or fewer rental houses who rent without a real estate agent and who do not indicate racial preference in advertising. Banking and real estate practices involving "redlining" (refusing to approve mortgages in certain neighborhoods) and "blockbusting" (moving in one or more African American families for the purpose of trying to frighten white homeowners out of a neighborhood) were outlawed by the act.

Voting Rights Act of 1982

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 was renewed in 1970, 1975, and 1982.

The 1975 renewal required bilingual ballots in all states, Justice Department or federal court approval for all changes in state election laws affecting aspects of the act, and extended voting rights protections to Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. The 1982 renewal eliminated the need to prove "intent to discriminate"; prosecutors were allowed to use objective outcomes as sufficient evidence of voting discrimination. Also, the courts were given the power to redraw city and state election district lines to maximize minority representation.

In City of Mobile vs. Bolden (1980), the Supreme Court had ruled 6:3 that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act invalidated only those voting practices that were adopted for the purpose of discriminating. Practices that had only a discriminatory effect, as the at-large city commission challenged in that case, were not banned. The Voting Rights Act of 1982 was intended to and did overturn this decision.

The Voting Rights Act of 1982 held minorities not only had a right to vote, but a right "to elect representatives of their choice." In 1986, a split Supreme Court in Thornburg vs. Gingles (1986) held the 1982 act required states with many minority voters to draw electoral districts that ensured those voters would be represented in Congress, the state legislature or other elected bodies. Based on the 1982 act and the 1986 decision, especially following the 1990 census (which required redrawing voting boundaries for most states), most states with a large number of minority voters sought to create "majority-minority" districts so as to comply with the law. This led to a doubling of the number of African Americans represented in Congress.

In 1995 a more conservative Supreme Court, by a 5:4 vote, held unconstitutional any state redistricting which used race as a "predominant factor" in drawing electoral boundaries (Miller v. Johnson, 1995). The opinion by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy affirmed a lower court finding that Georgia's 11th Congressional District was unconstitutional. In a separate 1995 case, the Supreme Court further limited the Voting Rights Act of 1982 by holding that states with a large population of African Americans and/or Hispanic Americans need not always create a "majority-minority" electoral district to satisfy the law. Rather than establishing a single "majority-minority" district, courts may establish two or more districts where minority voters make up at least 25 percent of the total and thereby can influence who gets elected. The 8-1 decision, in a Tennessee case, removed from states the legal pressure to create electoral districts that elect minorities to Congress, the state legislature, county councils or school boards. In refusing to hear an appeal in the Tennessee case, the Supreme Court took the unusual step of issuing an order officially upholding the restrictive ruling in the Tennessee case.

The Civil Rights Act of 1991

The Civil Rights Act of 1991 sought to reverse certain Supreme Court decisions which had limited certain civil rights protections. The act enhanced legal remedies against discrimination.

Text of the Civil Rights Act of 1991