Ku Klux Klan Act

Enforcement Act of 1871
Long title	An Act to enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other Purposes
Nicknames	Civil Rights Act of 1871,[citation needed] Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act
Enacted by	the 42nd United States Congress
Citations
Public law	42−22
Statutes at Large	ch. 22, 17 Stat. 13
Legislative history
	Introduced in the House as H.R. 320 by Samuel Shellabarger (R-OH) on March 28, 1871; Committee consideration by House Select Committee on the President's Message, Senate Judiciary; Passed the House on April 7, 1871 (118–91); Passed the Senate on April 14, 1871 (45–19); Reported by the joint conference committee on April 19, 1871; agreed to by the House on April 19, 1871 (93–74) and by the Senate on April 19, 1871 (36–13); Signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on April 20, 1871;
United States Supreme Court cases
	United States v. Harris, 106 U.S. 629 (1883); Bogan v. Scott-Harris, 523 U.S. 44 (1997) See also the "Civil rights liability under Section 1983" section at Template:US14thAmendment; .

The Enforcement Act of 1871 (17 Stat. 13), also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act,^[1] Third Ku Klux Klan Act,^[2] Civil Rights Act of 1871, or Force Act of 1871,^[3] is an Act of the United States Congress that was intended to combat the paramilitary vigilantism of the Ku Klux Klan. The act made certain acts committed by private persons federal offenses including conspiring to deprive citizens of their rights to hold office, serve on juries, or enjoy the equal protection of law. The Act authorized the President to deploy federal troops to counter the Klan and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus to make arrests without charge.^[4]^[5]

The act was passed by the 42nd United States Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on April 20, 1871. The act was the last of three Enforcement Acts passed by Congress from 1870 to 1871 during the Reconstruction Era to combat attacks upon the suffrage rights of African Americans. The statute has been subject to only minor changes since then, but has been the subject of voluminous interpretation by courts.

This legislation was asked for by President Grant and passed within one month of when he sent the request to Congress. Grant's request was a result of the reports he was receiving of widespread racial threats in the Deep South, particularly in South Carolina. He felt that he needed to have his authority broadened before he could effectively intervene. After the act's passage, the president had the power for the first time to both suppress state disorders on his own initiative and to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Grant did not hesitate to use this authority on numerous occasions during his presidency, and as a result the KKK was completely dismantled (ending the "first Klan" era) and did not resurface in any meaningful way until the beginning of the 20th century.^[6]

Several of the act's provisions still exist today as codified statutes. The most important of these is 42 U.S.C. § 1983: Civil action for deprivation of rights. It is the most widely used civil rights enforcement statute, allowing people to sue in civil court over civil rights violations.

^ ^a ^b Davis, Abraham L.; Graham, Barbara Luck (1995). The Supreme Court, Race, and Civil Rights: From Marshall to Rehnquist. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. p. 13. ISBN 9781452263793. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
^ "The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
^ "U.S. Senate: The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871". www.senate.gov.
^ Keyssar, Alexander (June 30, 2009). The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-0-465-01014-1. Acting as the military, or paramilitary, arm of the Democratic Party, organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan mounted violent campaigns against blacks who sought to vote or hold office, as well as their white Republican allies. In 1870 alone, hundreds of freedmen were killed, and many more badly hurt, by politicized vigilante violence...The national government did not stand by idly. In May 1870, stretching the limits of its constitutional powers, congress passed an Enforcement Act that made interference with voting a federal offense...This first enforcement act was followed by others including the Ku Klux Klan Act, which, among its provisions, authorized the president to deploy the army to protect the electoral process.
^ Blackburn, Robin (February 20, 2024). The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888. Verso Books. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-80429-341-6. White vigilante groups intervened on the side of white employers to keep down wages and reduce the share of the crop claimed by black tenant farmers. Black schoolhouses were burned, and across the South hundreds of Republican activists were killed in the years 1868-71. Republicans in Congress responded to this wave of terrorist intimidation by passing civil rights legislation backed up by federal force in 1870 and 1871. The so-called Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 empowered the president and army to crack down on the Klan; the suspension of habeas corpus and use of Federal Cavalry led to the arrest of thousands of Klansmen.
^ Scaturro, Frank (1999). President Grant Reconsidered. Lanham, MD: Madison Books. pp. 71–72. ISBN 1-56833-132-0.

[Davis-1] Davis, Abraham L.; Graham, Barbara Luck (1995). The Supreme Court, Race, and Civil Rights: From Marshall to Rehnquist. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. p. 13. ISBN 9781452263793. Archived from the original on December 22, 2020. Retrieved November 27, 2020.

[2] "The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives". history.house.gov. Retrieved February 16, 2021.

[3] "U.S. Senate: The Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871". www.senate.gov.

[4] Keyssar, Alexander (June 30, 2009). The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. Hachette UK. ISBN 978-0-465-01014-1. Acting as the military, or paramilitary, arm of the Democratic Party, organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan mounted violent campaigns against blacks who sought to vote or hold office, as well as their white Republican allies. In 1870 alone, hundreds of freedmen were killed, and many more badly hurt, by politicized vigilante violence...The national government did not stand by idly. In May 1870, stretching the limits of its constitutional powers, congress passed an Enforcement Act that made interference with voting a federal offense...This first enforcement act was followed by others including the Ku Klux Klan Act, which, among its provisions, authorized the president to deploy the army to protect the electoral process.

[5] Blackburn, Robin (February 20, 2024). The Reckoning: From the Second Slavery to Abolition, 1776-1888. Verso Books. p. 352. ISBN 978-1-80429-341-6. White vigilante groups intervened on the side of white employers to keep down wages and reduce the share of the crop claimed by black tenant farmers. Black schoolhouses were burned, and across the South hundreds of Republican activists were killed in the years 1868-71. Republicans in Congress responded to this wave of terrorist intimidation by passing civil rights legislation backed up by federal force in 1870 and 1871. The so-called Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 empowered the president and army to crack down on the Klan; the suspension of habeas corpus and use of Federal Cavalry led to the arrest of thousands of Klansmen.

[6] Scaturro, Frank (1999). President Grant Reconsidered. Lanham, MD: Madison Books. pp. 71–72. ISBN 1-56833-132-0.

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