Legislative · Federal
Civil Rights Act of 1866 guarantees freedmen basic economic rights
- Direction
- +2 — major benefit to Freedmen
- Force
- 1.00 — enacted, vetoed, or final
- Status
- Decided
- Date
- 1866-04-09
Why this rating
Passed over President Johnson's veto on April 9, 1866, the first Civil Rights Act declared formerly enslaved people citizens and guaranteed the rights to contract, sue, and own property. Rated +2: a direct, material, lineage-specific expansion of legal and economic rights with force of law.
Summary
Passed over President Johnson's veto on April 9, 1866, the first Civil Rights Act declared formerly enslaved people citizens and guaranteed the rights to contract, sue, and own property. Rated +2: a direct, material, lineage-specific expansion of legal and economic rights with force of law.
Sources
- America's First Civil Rights Act — President Lincoln's Cottage — official record · primary · historical
Rated under the published impact rubric. Direction records what a measure would do if fully effective; force records how far it has actually travelled. Neither is inferred — both trace to the sources above. Think something here is wrong? Tell us and we will log the correction.