Enforcement Acts

The Enforcement Acts were three bills passed by the United States Congress between 1870 and 1871. They were criminal codes which protected African-Americans’ right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries, and receive equal protection of laws. Passed under the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, the laws also allowed the federal government to intervene when states did not act to protect these rights. The acts passed following the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave full citizenship to anyone born in the United States or freed slaves, and the Fifteenth Amendment, which banned racial discrimination in voting.

At the time, the lives of all newly freed slaves, as well as their political and economic rights, were being threatened. This threat led to the creation of the Enforcement Acts.

The main goal in creating these acts was to improve conditions for blacks, and freed slaves. The main target was the Ku Klux Klan, a racist organization, which was targeting blacks, and, later, other groups. Although this act was meant to fight against the KKK and help blacks, and freedmen, many states were reluctant to take such relatively extreme actions, for several reasons. Some politicians at the state and federal levels were either members of the Klan, or did not have enough strength to fight the Klan. Another goal of these acts was to achieve national unity, by creating a country where all races were considered equal under the law.

The Enforcement Acts did many things to help freedmen, the main purpose under this act was the prohibited use of violence or any form of intimidation to prevent the freedmen from voting and denying them this right. There were many provisions placed under this act, many with serious consequences. The Enforcement Acts were created as part of the reconstruction era in the United States following the American civil war, and in order for full national unity, all citizens had to be accepted and viewed equally and violence must be prohibited.

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