Enforcement Act of 1870

The Enforcement Act of 1870, also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1870 or First Ku Klux Klan Act, or Force Act was a federal United States law written to empower the President with the legal authority to enforce the first section of the Fifteenth Amendment throughout the United States. The act was the first of three Enforcement Acts passed by the United States Congress from 1870 to 1871 during the Reconstruction Era to combat attacks on the suffrage rights of African Americans from state officials or violent groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

The bill H.R. 1293 was first introduced into the House by Republican John Bingham from Ohio on February 21, 1870, but not discussed until May 16, 1870. Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill S. 810 grew from several different bills from various Senators. The first proposed bill was submitted to the Senate in February 1870 by Sen. George F. Edmunds from Vermont followed by Sen. Oliver P. Morton from Indiana, Sen.Charles Sumner from Massachusetts, and Sen. William Stewart from Nevada. After three months of rewriting in the Committee on the Judiciary, the final version of the bill was introduced onto the Senate floor on April 19, 1870. The act was passed by Congress in May 1870 and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on May 31, 1870.

The Enforcement Act of 1870 prohibited discrimination by state officials in voter registration on the basis of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. It established penalties for interfering with a person’s right to vote and gave federal courts the power to enforce the act. The act also authorized the President to employ the use of the army to uphold the act and the use of federal marshals to bring charges against offenders for election fraud, the bribery or intimidation of voters, and conspiracies to prevent citizens from exercising their constitutional rights.

Comments

PHYLLIS LINDA HYMAN (July 6, 1949 – June 30, 1995)

Phyllis Hyman was born in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , and grew up in St. Clair Village , the South Hills section of Pittsburgh . Born to an Italian mother, (Louise), and African-American father, (Phillip), Hyman was the eldest of seven children. Through her paternal great-grandparents Ishmael and Cassandra (Cross) Hyman, she was also the first cousin once removed of actor Earle Hyman (best known for his recurring role on The Cosby Show as Cliff's father, Russell Huxtable). After leaving Pittsburgh, her music training started at a music school. On graduation, she performed on a national tour with the group New Direction in 1971. After the group disbanded, she joined All the People and worked with another local group, The Hondo Beat. At this time, she appeared in the film Lenny (1974). She also did a two-year stint leading a band called "Phyllis Hyman and the P/H Factor". She was discovered in 1975 by music industry veteran Sid Maurer, and former Epic Re

Queen Philippa: England's First Black Queen

England's First Black Queen, Mother of the Black Prince Philippa was the daughter of William of Hainault, a lord in part of what is now Belgium. When she was nine the King of England, Edward II, decided that he would marry his son, the future Edward III, to her, and sent one of his bishops, a Bishop Stapeldon, to look at her. He described her thus: "The lady whom we saw has not uncomely hair, betwixt blue-black and brown. Her head is cleaned shaped; her forehead high and broad, and standing somewhat forward. Her face narrows between the eyes, and the lower part of her face is still more narrow and slender than the forehead. Her eyes are blackish brown and deep. Her nose is fairly smooth and even, save that is somewhat broad at the tip and flattened, yet it is no snub nose. Her nostrils are also broad, her mouth fairly wide. Her lips somewhat full and especially the lower lip…a

369th Infantry Regiment “Harlem Hellfighters”

First organized in 1916 as the 15th New York National Guard Infantry Regiment and manned by black enlisted soldiers with both black and white officers, the U.S. Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, popularly known as the “Harlem Hellfighters,” was the best known African American unit of World War I. The regiment was nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, the Black Rattlers, which was given to the regiment by the French. The nickname "Hell Fighters" was given to them by the Germans due to their toughness and that they never lost a man through capture, lost a trench or a foot of ground to the enemy. The "Harlem Hellfighters" were the first all black regiment that helped change the American public's opinion on African American soldiers and helped pave the way for future African American soldiers. Federalized in 1917, the 369th prepared for service in Europe and arrived in Brest, France in December. The next month, the regiment became part of the 93rd Division (Provisio

Enlightened Free Thinking Nubian Kings And Queens

Search This Blog