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The Civil Rights Act of 1866

A few months after the battle over the Freedmen’s Bureau charter, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The act guaranteed citizenship to all Americans regardless of race (except, in an unfortunate irony, Native Americans) and secured former slaves the right to own property, sue, testify in court, and sign legal contracts. President Johnson vetoed this bill as well, but Radical Republicans managed to secure enough votes to override it.

The Fourteenth Amendment

Shortly after passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Congress drafted the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to ensure that the 1866 act would have its intended power. Although the amendment did not give former slaves the right to vote, it guaranteed citizenship to all males born in the United States, regardless of race. Republicans in Congress specified that southern states had to ratify the amendment before they could reenter the Union. In 1868, enough states ratified, and the Fourteenth Amendment was added to the Constitution.

Protections for Former Slaves

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment were milestones in the fight to give former slaves equal rights. The Civil Rights Act was the first piece of congressional legislation to override state laws and protect civil liberties. More important, it reversed the 1857Dred Scott v. Sanford ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which stated that blacks were not citizens, effectively legalizing slavery. In giving former slaves citizenship, the Civil Rights Act also gave them—at least in theory—equal protection under the law.

The ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed that from that point onward, no one in the United States—even a Supreme Court justice or president—could deny a black person citizenship rights on the basis of racial inequality. Constitutional law stood in the way. Of course, true equality did not happen in a day; the first real steps would not be taken for another hundred years. But the Fourteenth Amendment was a significant start.

Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle”

Many southern whites were angered by the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Fourteenth Amendment. Angry mobs took to the streets in communities throughout the South, and riots erupted in Memphis and New Orleans, leaving many innocent blacks dead. The violence shocked many northerners, who accused President Johnson of turning a blind eye. The president, in turn, placed the blame on Radical Republicans in Congress during his infamous “Swing Around the Circle,” in which he traveled throughout the country giving speeches that lambasted Republicans, pro-war Democrats, and blacks. Rather than drum up support, however, Johnson’s coarse rhetoric hurt the Democratic Party’s credibility and persuaded many northerners to vote Republican in the congressional elections of 1866.

The Northern Response

Ironically, the southern race riots and Johnson’s “Swing Around the Circle” tour convinced northerners that Congress was not being harsh enough toward the postwar South. Many northerners were troubled by the presidential pardons Johnson had handed out to Confederates, his decision to strip the Freedmen’s Bureau of its power, and the fact that blacks were essentially slaves again on white plantations. Moreover, many in the North believed that a president sympathetic to southern racists and secessionists could not properly reconstruct the South. As a result, Radical Republicans overwhelmingly beat their Democratic opponents in the elections of 1866, ending Presidential Reconstruction and ushering in the era of Radical Reconstruction.

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