Tyranny disguised as democracy has been working overtime to limit voting. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 could have started the real work of democracy. Guest Blogger | Many cared more about reelection in 1866 and 1868 than electing a democracy. I always think about what would have happened if the Radical Republicans had wielded that power? At least historians could be writing that their basic civil right of voting was first granted by the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Reconstruction; Introduction.
Oct 11, 2016. Additional Details. Racist ideas, however, were one of the factors that prevented “to vote” from being inserted in the 1866 Act. The birther movement would have showed up long before Donald Trump, and stalked generations of Barack Obamas as part of a larger strategy to strip Black people and other peoples of their citizenship (since they could not strip these citizens of their voting rights). Tags: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding.—Opening Section, the Civil Rights Act of 1866. And I have been left lamenting as I read and write and witness this other American history. But at least all those Black and women and non-landowning citizens of old—all those poor, young, Black, or elderly citizens without a photo identification card today—would not have faced, would not be facing, the contradiction of being prohibited from voting in a self-identified democracy. I, like many historians, have used the term “voting rights” while chronicling this political bloodbath. Students may answer that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 provides a few methods for enforcing its requirements. The act, while pioneering civil rights legislation, continued the congressional refusal of making voting an inalienable civil right of US citizens, whether free or incarcerated. Related Resources Resources . Act of April 9, 1866 (Civil Rights Act), Public Law 39-26, 14 STAT 27, which protected all persons in the United States in their civil rights and furnished the means of their vindication., 4/9/1866. . Indeed, for much of this country’s history, the privilege of voting has reflected white privilege, male privilege, and elite privilege. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 could have started the real work of democracy. . Instead, tens of millions of children, inmates, and immigrants living in this country and paying taxes remain disenfranchised. “Radical Republicans,” as they were known, were concerned about these matters, but they hardly wielded the power to connect voting rights to civil rights in American law. Throughout the mid-to-late 1860s, Democrats produced and circulated racist ideas about all the tragedies that would plague the nation if corrupt and incompetent Black people received the ballot.
But of course that did not happen. His veto was overridden by Congress.
Share: Share on Facebook Tweet Share on LinkedIn Send email. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was enacted with the purpose of preserving the black community’s rights. April 09, 1866 Image courtesy of Library of Congress A New York state politician for more than a decade, Representative Henry Raymond served only one term in the House of Representatives. Tyranny disguised as democracy has been working overtime to limit voting. Despite the existence of these laws, they were not fully respected and caused much upheaval amongst the white American population. Allyn Cox. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were now citizens, without regard to race, color, or previous condition. Americans could have been working over the last 150 years on guaranteeing universal voting, in its broadest sense.
Some Republicans, however, shared Johnson’s racist views. Americans could have been working over the last 150 years on guaranteeing universal voting, in its broadest sense. Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln and then promptly vetoed the 1866 Act.
As recently as in 2000, we witnessed the political bloodbath of disenfranchised voters deciding elections as much as enfranchised voters. As I show in my new book, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, racist ideas have long been produced and deployed to rationalize racist policies and to make Americans believe that the effects of those policies—racial inequities and disparities—are normal and the fault of Black people. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 Revisited by JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN* On April 9, 1866, the Congress of the United States enacted into law the first civil rights bill in the history of the country. shall have the same right, in every State and Territory in the United States, to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property .
“No independent government of any form has ever been successful in [Black] hands,” Johnson proclaimed in his Third Annual Message to Congress on December 3, 1867.
Congress could have inserted “to vote” somewhere in this passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866: “citizens, of every race and color . Print: Congress > The Civil Rights Act of 1866 . They were more concerned about alienating racist white voters than welcoming Black voters. Pub. Phone: 202.544.2422Email: info@historians.org, The Promise and Peril of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. Anyone who deprives a person of his or her civil rights as defined by the act is deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine and/or imprisonment.
. As much as this act granted Black people citizenship, it also stripped generations of incarcerated, often times nonwhite peoples, of their civil rights. Congress | April 9, 1866 . But of course that did not happen.
I have found myself doing both over the years—celebrating the racial progress the act brought into being as well as lamenting the resulting progression of racism. Severability. National Archives Identifier: 299820: Creator(s): National Archives and Records Administration. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. ), Demonstrators outside the White House hold signs demanding the right to vote and protesting police brutality against civil rights demonstrators in Alabama in March 1965. Credit: Library of Congress. African American history Office of the Federal Register. L. 102–166, title IV, § 401, Nov. 21, 1991, 105 Stat. Those additions, 150 years ago, would have paired the American idea of its exceptional democracy with its political reality. Overview of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
That is not to say that those trying to control elections through draining their opponents’ voting pools would have stayed home. Political History. But voting has been a contested privilege, not a right. L. 94–559, which amended section 1988 of this title, is known as “The Civil Rights Attorney’s Fees Awards Act of 1976”, see note set out under section 1988 of this title. Quite the contrary.
the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (71 Stat. Public domain, from the Architect of the Capitol. Follow him on Twitter @DrIbram. And maybe, just maybe, Americans could have spent their democratic time making the civil right of voting a human right for all taxpayers living in the United States, no matter their citizenship status, no matter their age, no matter their judicial status. Ibram X. Kendi is a historian at the University of Florida and the author of Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, which is a finalist for the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction. The Civil Rights Act (1866) was passed by Congress on 9th April 1866 over the veto of President Andrew Johnson. The Civil Rights Act of 1866. What if they had seized the time and written “to vote” as well as “and gender” into the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and those inalienable rights of US citizens had been secured by the 14th Amendment? On this date, the House overrode President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 with near unanimous Republican support, 122 to 41, marking the first time Congress legislated upon civil rights. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, One of the producers of the racist idea of the incompetent Black voter was the leader of the Democratic Party. Current Events in Historical Context Civil Rights Bill Passes. AHA Today
Republicans, who had a two-thirds majority in Congress, overrode Johnson’s veto.
Please read our commenting and letters policy before submitting. US President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 upon entering office. . With the ballot, Johnson argued, Blacks would cause “a tyranny such as this continent has never yet witnessed.”. 637), and as further amended by section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1960 (74 Stat. The act voided discriminatory “Black codes” throughout the country, but also helped hack voting off the body of civil rights. The last 150 years may have been strikingly different, not just for Black people, but for all Americans whose voting privileges have been revoked or not extended. This is due in part to the Civil Rights Act of 1866, in which Congress explicitly defined the rights of US citizens, but left voting out. (I was a first time voter in Florida when Black votes were suppressed and George W. Bush won the state and the presidential election. I must ask: should we be celebrating or lamenting the sesquicentennial of this inaugural civil rights act? Ever since, the American democracy has been bleeding out disenfranchised citizens. .” The act could also have added “and gender” at the beginning, making voting a right for all citizens who were women. North America Pub.