Civil Rights Act of 1871 Passed (1871)
On April 20, 1871, the Civil Rights Act of 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, was passed by President Ulysses S. Grant. The act was intended to protect southern blacks from the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) following the Civil War.
In January 1871, Pennsylvania Senator John Scott called a Congressional committee to discuss Klan activity. Fifty-two witnesses gave testimony about Klan activities and atrocities in the South. As a result of this testimony, Congressman Benjamin Franklin Butler of Massachusetts introduced the Ku Klux Klan Act, which would protect the Constitution rights of all United States citizens. While the bill was being considered, further violence in the South swung support for its passage.
On April 20, 1871, President Ulysses S. Grant signed Butler's legislation.
The Act reads in part:
Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
The Act was used together with the 1870 Force Act to enforce civil rights, specifically for blacks. Under the Klan Act, federal troops were used for enforcement, and klansmen were prosecuted in federal court, rather than state or local court. More African Americans were selected to serve on juries in federal court than for local or state juries, so they had a chance to participate in the process. Following the passage of the Act, hundreds of Klan members were fined or imprisoned.
Today, the Klan Act is still in practice under 42 U.S.C. ยงย 1983, and is considered a powerful authority on civil rights.