Civil Rights Act of 1875

United States federal law

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Long title| An act to protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights.
Acronyms (colloquial)| CRA 1875
Nicknames| Enforcement Act, Force Act, and Sumner Civil Rights Bill
Enacted by| the 43rd United States Congress
Citations
Statutes at Large| 18 Stat. 335-337
Legislative history

* Committee consideration by Senate Judiciary
* Passed the House on February 4, 1875 (162–100)
* Passed the Senate on February 27, 1875 (38–26)
* Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875

United States Supreme Court cases
Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883)

The Civil Rights Act of 1875, sometimes called the Enforcement Act[a] or the Force Act, was a United States federal law enacted during the Reconstruction era in response to civil rights violations against African Americans. The bill was passed by the 43rd United States Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875. The act was designed to "protect all citizens in their civil and legal rights", providing for equal treatment in public accommodations and public transportation and prohibiting exclusion from jury service. It was originally drafted by Senator Charles 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 and Republicans in the Southern United States.

The Reconstruction era ended with the resolution of the 1876 presidential election, and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 was the last federal civil rights law enacted until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled in the Civil Rights Cases that the public accommodation sections of the act were unconstitutional, saying Congress was not afforded control over private persons or corporations under the Equal Protection Clause. Parts of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later re-adopted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968, both of which cited the Commerce Clause as the source of Congress's power to regulate private actors.

## Legislative history

[edit]

The drafting of the bill was performed early in 1870 by United States Senator Charles Sumner, a dominant Radical Republican in the Senate, with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, a prominent African American who established the law department at Howard University.[1] The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st Congress of the United States in 1870. Congress removed the coverage of public schools that Sumner had included. The act was passed by the 43rd Congress in February 1875 as a memorial to honor Sumner, who had just died.[2] It was signed into law by United States President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.[3]

The Massachusetts 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]

## Enforcement

[edit]

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 historian John 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]

## Case law

[edit]

Main article: Civil Rights Cases

The Supreme Court, in an 8–1 decision, declared sections of the act unconstitutional in the Civil Rights Cases on October 15, 1883. Justice John Marshall Harlan provided the lone dissent. The Court held the Equal Protection Clause within the Fourteenth 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 the Thirteenth 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 the Civil Rights Act of 1957, enacted during the Civil Rights Movement.

## Legacy

[edit]

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 is notable as the last major piece of legislation related to Reconstruction that was passed by Congress during the Reconstruction era. These include the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the four Reconstruction Acts of 1867 and 1868, the three Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871, and the three Constitutional Amendments adopted between 1865 and 1870.[11]

Provisions contained in the Civil Rights Act of 1875 were later readopted by Congress during the Civil Rights Movement as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Civil Rights Act of 1968. The 1964 and 1968 acts relied upon the Commerce Clause contained in Article One of the Constitution of the United States rather than the Equal Protection Clause within the Fourteenth Amendment.

## See also

[edit]

* United States labor law
* Equality Act (United States), proposed Act seeking to prevent discrimination in public accommodations

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Not to be confused with the Enforcement Acts.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "John Mercer Langston, Representative, 1890–1891, Republican from Virginia, Black Americans in Congress series". Retrieved November 12, 2012.
2. ^ Hoffer (2010), p. 121
3. ^ "Civil Rights Bill of 1875, Legislative Interests, The Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood, Black Americans in Congress series". Retrieved May 5, 2009.
4. ^ Foner, Eric (2019). The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 141\. ISBN 9780393652574.
5. ^ Smith (2002), pp. 566-68
6. ^ Franklin (1974), pp. 225-35
7. ^ Franklin (1974), p. 235
8. ^ Gillette (1982), p. 201
9. ^ Logan (1997), p. 173-175
10. ^ Gerber and Friedlander (2008)
11. ^ "Summary of Constitutional Amendments and Major Civil Rights Acts passed by Congress". Retrieved November 20, 2012.

## Bibliography

[edit]

* Franklin, John Hope (Winter 1974). "The Enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1875". Prologue Magazine. 6 (4): 225–235.
* Gerber, Richard A.; Friedlander, Alan (2008). The Civil Rights Act of 1875: A Reexamination. Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. ISBN 9781878508287.
* Gillette, William (1982). "Insignificant Victory: The Civil Rights Act of 1875". Retreat from Reconstruction, 1869--1879. LSU Press. pp. 259–279\. ISBN 9780807110065.
* Hoffer, Williamjames Hull (2010). The Caning of Charles Sumner: Honor, Idealism, and the Origins of the Civil War. Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801899577.
* Logan, Rayford Whittingham (1997) [1965]. The Betrayal of the Negro: From Rutherford B. Hayes to Woodrow Wilson. DaCapo Press. ISBN 9780306807589.
* Smith, Jean Edward (2002). Grant. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780684849270.
* Douglass, Frederick (1892). Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. De Wolfe, Fiske & Co., Third Part, Chapter VI, "The Supreme Court Decision."

## Further reading

[edit]

### Books

[edit]

#### Encyclopedias

[edit]

* Atwell, Mary Welek (2012). "Civil Rights Act of 1875". In Wilbur R. Miller (ed.). The Social History of Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia. SAGE. pp. 262–263\. ISBN 9781412988780.
* Bitzer, J. Michael (2013). "Civil Rights Act of 1875". In Paul Finkelman (ed.). The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties. Routledge. p. 300\. ISBN 9781135947057.
* Rivera, Alicia (2006). "Civil Rights Act of 1875". In Paul Finkelman (ed.). Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619-1895: From The Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass, vol. 1, A-E. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 285–287\. ISBN 9780195167771.

#### Monographs

[edit]

* Friedlander, Alan; Gerber, Richard Allan (2018). Welcoming Ruin: The Civil Rights Act of 1875. Brill. ISBN 9789004384071.
* Higginbotham, A. Leon Jr. (1998). "The Supreme Court's Sanction of Racial Hatred: The 1883 Civil Rights Cases". Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process. Oxford University Press. pp. 94–107\. ISBN 9780198028673.
* Howard, John R. (1999). The Shifting Wind: The Supreme Court and Civil Rights from Reconstruction to Brown. New York: State University of New York Press. pp. 66–68. ISBN 9780791440896.
* Sandoval-Strausz, A. K. (2007). "Accommodating Jim Crow: The Law of Hospitality and the Struggle for Civil Rights". Hotel: An American History. Yale University Press. pp. 284–311\. ISBN 9780300106169.
* Tsesis, Alexander (2010). ""Badges and Incidents of Slavery" In the Supreme Court". The Promises of Liberty: The History and Contemporary Relevance of the Thirteenth Amendment. Columbia University Press. pp. 172–181\. ISBN 9780231141444.
* 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. ISBN 9780870136177.
* Wynn, Linda T. (2009). "Civil Rights Act of 1875". In Jessie Carney Smith, Linda T. Wynn (ed.). Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience. Visible Ink Press. pp. 165–167\. ISBN 9781578592609.

#### Dissertations and theses

[edit]

* Lionel Rowe, Robert Lionel (1974). State Response to the Civil Right Issue, 1883-1885 (M.A. thesis). Portland State University. OCLC 40319075.
* Luckett, Barbara N. (1972). The Civil Rights Act of 1875: A Failure Reconsidered. (M.A. thesis) University of Nebraska at Omaha. OCLC 14633686.
* Weaver, Valerie Whittemore (1966). The Civil Rights Act of 1875: Reactions and Enforcement (M.A. thesis). University of California. OCLC 920414960.
* White, Carolyn Iona (1971). Georgia's Reaction to the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 (M.A. thesis). Atlanta University. hdl:20.500.12322/cau.td:1971_white_carolyn_i. OCLC 889990672.

### Journals

[edit]

* 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. JSTOR 1121057.
* 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.
* Gudridge, Patrick O. (April 1989). "Privileges and Permissions: The Civil Rights Act of 1875". Law and Philosophy. 8 (1): 83–130\. doi:10.2307/3504632. JSTOR 3504632. S2CID 147599621.
* 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. JSTOR 363614.
* Kaczorowski, Robert J. (February 1987). "To Begin the Nation Anew: Congress, Citizenship, and Civil Rights after the Civil War". The American Historical Review. 92 (1): 45–68\. doi:10.2307/1862782. JSTOR 1862782.
* 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. JSTOR 1890844.
* Murphy, L.E. (April 1927). "The Civil Rights Law of 1875". Journal of Negro History. 12 (2): 110–127\. doi:10.2307/2714050. JSTOR 2714050. S2CID 149856037.
* 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. S2CID 144751982.
* 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. JSTOR 2716730. S2CID 149517761.
* Wyatt-Brown, Bertram (December 1965). "The Civil Rights Act of 1875". Western Political Quarterly. 18 (4): 763–765\. doi:10.1177/106591296501800403. S2CID 154418104.

## External links

[edit]

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Civil Rights Act of 1875

### Congressional Records

[edit]

* Congressional Record: Congressional Globe (1833–1873) Provides an index to the "History of Senate Bills and Joint Resolutions" for Senate bill S. 1 during 1873. Retrieved November 18, 2012
* 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

### Other

[edit]

* Benjamin F. Butler, "Civil Rights: Speech of Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, in the House of Representatives, January 7, 1874," From the Digital Archive Collections of the Mount St. Mary's University. Retrieved October 15, 2014
* "Civil Rights Bill of 1875", The Fifteenth Amendment in Flesh and Blood: Legislative Interests Provides a detailed description of the history of the bill from 1870 until its passage by Congress in 1875. 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
* Summary of Constitutional Amendments and Major Civil Rights Acts passed by Congress Part of the Black Americans in Congress, 1870–2007 series. Provided by the Office of History and Preservation under the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved November 18, 2012
* "The Trouble has Commenced - A Tale of Anxiety" by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly. From The New York Times "On This Day" series. Recounts the events on the floor of the House in the United States Congress involving the Civil Rights Bill on February 27, 1875. Retrieved March 16, 2013
* "How Some People Regard the Passage of the Civil Rights Bill" Published in the Daily Graphic on March 3, 1875. From the Old Fulton website. Presents a detractors view on the outcome of the Civil Right Bill. Retrieved July 5, 2014
* Digitized image of Charles Sumners' senate bill S. 1 as introduced during the 43rd United States Congress. From the Records of the U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved May 18, 2015
* "Some Memories of A Long Life" An excerpt from the memoir of Malvina Shanklin Harlan, the wife of Justice John Marshall Harlan. The excerpt chronicles the effort that Justice Harlan placed into writing an opinion for the Civil Rights Cases (1883). From the Library of Congress. Retrieved May 18, 2015

* v
* t
* e

Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States (1869–1877)

Military career|

* Grant and the American Civil War
* Fort Donelson
* Shiloh
* Vicksburg
* Chattanooga
* Overland
* Richmond–Petersburg
* Appomattox
* Commanding generalship

Presidency|

* First inauguration
* Second inauguration
* Scandals
* Grantism
* Pardons
* Cabinet
* Judicial appointments
* State of the Union addresses
* 1869
* 1870
* 1871
* 1872
* 1873
* 1874
* 1875
* 1876

| Foreign policy|

* Treaty of Washington
* Alabama Claims
* Korean Expedition
* Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo

|

Economic policy|

* Public Credit Act of 1869
* Copyright Act of 1870
* Currency Act of 1870
* Funding Act of 1870
* General Mining Act of 1872
* Timber Culture Act
* Specie Payment Resumption Act
* Desert Land Act

Government
reforms|

* Judiciary Act of 1869
* U.S. Department of Justice
* District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871
* Civil Service Commission
* Yellowstone National Park Protection Act
* Yellowstone National Park
* Post Office Consolidation Act
* Electoral Commission Act

Social policy|

* Reconstruction
* Amnesty Act
* Native American policy
* "Peace Policy"
* Modoc War
* Great Sioux War
* Indian Appropriations Act of 1871
* Enforcement Acts
* Enforcement Act of 1870
* Second Enforcement Act
* Ku Klux Klan Act
* Naturalization Act of 1870
* Comstock Act
* Poland Act
* Civil Rights Act of 1875
* Page Act of 1875

Post-presidency|

* Bid for a third term
* World tour

Books|

* Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

Life|

* Early life
* Birthplace
* Boyhood home
* Schoolhouse
* White Haven home
* farm
* Ulysses S. Grant Cottage
* Galena home
* Horsemanship
* speeding arrests
* Death and state funeral
* Grant's Tomb

Elections|

* 1868
* convention
* election
* 1872
* convention
* election

Legacy|

* Bibliography

| Memorials|

* Grant Memorial
* Presidential library
* Grant Park
* General Grant ship
* General Grant Tree
* grove
* Grant Cottage State Historic Site
* The Peacemakers
* U.S. Capitol statue
* Brooklyn relief
* Chicago statue
* Ohio Statehouse statue
* Philadelphia statue
* San Francisco bust
* U.S. Postage stamps
* Currency
* $5 bill
* $50 bill
* 1922 Grant Memorial coinage
* Grant High School
* Mount Grant (Nevada)
* Mount Grant (Vermont)
* U.S. Grant Hotel

|

Cultural depictions|

* Ulysses S. Grant (2002 documentary)
* Lincoln (2012 film)
* Grant (2020 miniseries)

Family|

* Hannah Simpson Grant (mother)
* Jesse Root Grant (father)
* Julia Grant (wife)
* Frederick Dent Grant (son)
* Ulysses S. Grant Jr. (son)
* Jesse Root Grant II (son)
* Nellie Grant (daughter)
* Ulysses S. Grant III (grandson)
* Chapman Grant (grandson)
* Ulysses S. Grant IV (grandson)
* Julia Dent Grant (granddaughter)

* ← Andrew Johnson
* Rutherford B. Hayes →

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Reconstruction era

Participants|

Federal government

* Presidents
* Abraham Lincoln
* Andrew Johnson
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Rutherford B. Hayes

* Congress
* 38
* 39
* 40
* 41
* 42
* 43
* 44
* 45
* Radical Republicans
* Moderate Republicans
* Conservative Republicans
* African-American senators
* African-American representatives
* Reconstruction Amendments
* United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction
* United States House Select Committee on Reconstruction

* Federal judiciary
* Taney Court
* Chase Court
* Waite Court

* Federal bureaucracy
* Edwin Stanton
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Justice Department

|

State governments

* Southern United States
* Confederate States of America

Others|

* African Americans
* Free people of color
* Freedman
* Politicians
* Carpetbaggers
* Ku Klux Klan
* Scalawag
* Redeemers
* White League
* Red Shirts
* Democratic Party
* Bourbon Democrat
* Horatio Seymour
* Samuel J. Tilden
* Republican Party
* Stalwarts
* Charles Sumner
* Thaddeus Stevens
* Lyman Trumbull
* Benjamin Wade
* John Bingham
* James Mitchell Ashley
* Freedman's Savings Bank
* Women during the Reconstruction era

Elections|

Presidential

* 1864
* DNC
* National Union Convention
* Radical Democratic Party

* 1868
* DNC
* RNC

* 1872
* DNC
* RNC
* Liberal Republican Party
* Straight-Out Democratic Party
* Victoria Woodhull

* 1876
* DNC
* RNC
* Greenback Convention
* Prohibition Convention
* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877

|

U.S. Senate|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

U.S. House|

* 1864–65
* 1866–67
* 1868–69
* 1870–71
* 1872–73
* 1874–75
* 1876–77

Gubernatorial|

* 1863
* Alabama
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Hampshire
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin
* West Virginia

* 1864
* Connecticut
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Massachusetts
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Hampshire
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1865
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1866
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* North Carolina
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Texas
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1867
* California
* Connecticut
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1868
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kentucky (special)
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* New Jersey
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1869
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* Virginia
* Vermont
* Wisconsin

* 1870
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* Oregon
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1871
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* New Jersey
* Ohio
* Rhode Island
* Wisconsin

* 1872
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Pennsylvania
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

* 1873
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Mississippi
* Ohio
* Texas
* Virginia
* Wisconsin

* 1874
* Alabama
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* Kansas
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* New Jersey
* Nevada
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* Vermont

* 1875
* California
* Connecticut
* Iowa
* Kentucky
* Massachusetts
* Maryland
* Maine
* Minnesota
* Ohio
* Ohio
* Wisconsin

* 1876
* Alabama
* Colorado
* Connecticut April
* Connecticut November
* Florida
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Massachusetts
* Maine
* Michigan
* Missouri
* North Carolina
* Rhode Island
* South Carolina
* Vermont
* West Virginia

U.S. elections|

* 1864
* 1866
* 1868
* 1870
* 1872
* 1874
* 1876

Key events|

| Prelude|

* American Indian Wars
* Slavery in the United States
* A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
* The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838)
* Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839)
* Seneca Falls Convention (1848)
* National Women's Rights Convention (1850)
* American Civil War
* Confiscation Act of 1861
* Confiscation Act of 1862
* District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)
* Militia Act of 1862

|

1863|

* Emancipation Proclamation
* General Order No. 143
* Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction
* Ten percent plan
* National Bank Act
* Women's Loyal National League
* New York City draft riots
* 1863 State of the Union Address

1864|

* Wade–Davis Bill
* 1864 elections
* 1864 State of the Union Address

1865|

* 13th Amendment
* Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
* Address
* Black Codes
* Special Field Orders No. 15
* Freedmen's Bureau
* Freedmen's Bureau bills
* Confederates surrender at Appomattox
* Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
* Shaw University
* New Departure
* 1865 State of the Union Address
* Founding of the Ku Klux Klan

1866|

* Civil Rights Act of 1866
* Memphis massacre of 1866
* New Orleans Massacre of 1866
* Swing Around the Circle
* Southern Homestead Act of 1866
* Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866
* Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866
* Tennessee readmitted to Union
* Petition for Universal Freedom
* National Labor Union
* Ex parte Garland
* Ex parte Milligan
* Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866

* 1866 elections

1867|

* Tenure of Office Act
* Command of Army Act
* Indian Peace Commission
* Knights of the White Camelia
* Pulaski riot
* Reconstruction Acts
* Reconstruction military districts
* Constitutional conventions of 1867
* Habeas Corpus Act of 1867
* Peonage Act of 1867
* First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* 1867 State of the Union Address

1868|

* 14th Amendment
* Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
* Timeline
* Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson
* Impeachment managers investigation
* Articles of impeachment
* Arkansas readmitted to Union
* Florida readmitted to Union
* North Carolina readmitted to Union
* South Carolina readmitted to Union
* Louisiana readmitted to Union
* Alabama readmitted to Union
* Opelousas massacre
* Fourth Reconstruction Act
* Georgia v. Stanton
* 1868 elections
* 1868 State of the Union Address

1869|

* National Woman Suffrage Association
* American Woman Suffrage Association
* Alabama Claims
* Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo
* Board of Indian Commissioners
* Public Credit Act of 1869
* Black Friday (1869)
* Ex parte McCardle
* First transcontinental railroad
* 1869 State of the Union Address

1870|

* 15th Amendment
* Enforcement Act of 1870
* Justice Department
* Naturalization Act of 1870
* Kirk–Holden war
* Shoffner Act
* 1870 elections
* 1870 State of the Union Address

1871|

* Ku Klux Klan hearings
* Second Enforcement Act
* Ku Klux Klan Act
* Alcorn State University
* Meridian race riot of 1871
* Treaty of Washington
* New York custom house ring
* Civil service commission
* United States expedition to Korea
* 1871 State of the Union Address

1872|

* General Mining Act of 1872
* Crédit Mobilier scandal
* Modoc War
* Star Route scandal
* Salary Grab Act
* Amnesty Act
* 1872 elections
* 1872 State of the Union Address

1873|

* Panic of 1873
* Colfax massacre
* Timber Culture Act
* Slaughter-House Cases
* Virginius Affair
* Coinage Act of 1873
* Long Depression
* Comstock laws
* 1873 State of the Union Address

1874|

* Brooks–Baxter War
* Battle of Liberty Place
* Coushatta massacre
* Red River War
* Timber Culture Act
* White League
* Election Massacre of 1874
* Vicksburg massacre
* Black Hills Gold Rush
* Sanborn incident
* Anti-Moiety Acts
* 1874 elections
* 1874 State of the Union Address

1875|

* United States v. Cruikshank
* Civil Rights Act of 1875
* Red Shirts
* Mississippi Plan
* Clifton Riot of 1875
* Yazoo City Riot of 1875
* Specie Payment Resumption Act
* Whiskey Ring
* Wheeler Compromise
* Delano affair
* Pratt & Boyd
* 1875 State of the Union Address

1876|

* Hamburg massacre
* South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876
* Ellenton massacre
* Great Sioux War of 1876
* Battle of the Little Bighorn
* United States v. Reese
* Trader post scandal
* Centennial Exposition
* Cattellism
* Safe burglary conspiracy
* 1876 elections
* 1876 State of the Union Address

1877|

* Electoral Commission
* Compromise of 1877
* Nez Perce War
* Desert Land Act
* Great Railroad Strike of 1877

Aftermath|

* Posse Comitatus Act (1878)
* Civil Rights Cases (1883)
* United States v. Harris (1883)
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Williams v. Mississippi (1898)
* Wilmington massacre
* Giles v. Harris (1903)
* Disenfranchisement

Aspects|

| Historiography|

* Bibliography of the Reconstruction era
* James Shepherd Pike
* The Prostrate State (1874)
* James Bryce
* The American Commonwealth (1888)
* Claude G. Bowers
* The Tragic Era (1929)
* Columbia University
* John Burgess
* Walter L. Fleming
* Dunning School
* William Archibald Dunning
* Charles A. Beard
* Howard K. Beale
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Black Reconstruction in America (1935)
* C. Vann Woodward
* Joel Williamson
* William R. Brock
* The American Crisis (1963)
* John Hope Franklin
* From Slavery to Freedom (1947)
* After Slavery (1965)
* Leon Litwack
* Been in the Storm So Long (1979)
* Eric Foner
* Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988)
* Kenneth M. Stampp
* Steven Hahn
* A Nation Under Our Feet (2003)
* The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)

|

Memory|

* Winslow Homer
* A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876)
* Thomas Dixon Jr.
* The Leopard's Spots (1902)
* The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905)
* D. W. Griffith
* The Birth of a Nation (1915)
* United Daughters of the Confederacy
* Gone with the Wind (1939)
* David W. Blight
* Race and Reunion (2001)

Legacy|

* Women's suffrage in the United States
* Labor history of the United States
* Gilded Age
* Jim Crow era
* Civil rights movement
* American frontier

Other topics|

* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Forty acres and a mule
* Habeas corpus
* History of the United States (1865–1917)
* Paramilitary
* Race (human categorization)
* Reconstruction Treaties
* Suffrage
* Technological and industrial history of the United States
* White supremacy
* Whitecapping

* Category

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* Germany

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