The Limited Effectiveness of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 in Extending Rights to the Freed Slaves

1491 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essays about civil rights act

How far do you agree that the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 were effective in extending civil rights to freed slaves? Both Acts aimed to protect the basic human rights of African-Americans, using federal law in the wake of the American Civil War. However this in itself is a major area of controversy, as the acts did merely aim to grant minimal rights to blacks, immediately suggesting their effectiveness was limited from the outset. Although indeed in contrast to this, it can be argued that the 14th Amendment to the constitution, embodying the Civil Rights Act of 1866, was a ‘step in the right direction’ and no matter how minimal that movement was, it was an essential starting point. The 1866 Act, defined all people born in the USA (except untaxed Indians) as national citizens, and this measure asserted the right of the federal government to intervene in state affairs should any discrepancies arise. This was a major advancement for the black community in terms of official social standing, especially having this act woven into the constitution, signifying a sense of security. However as shall be seen, it was not the idyllic, harmonious start many envisaged, supported by the introduction of the 1875 Act, which was designed to stop segregation. When considering the long term effectiveness of the Civil Rights Acts’, it was in the legal/political sectors that prevailed, although it is important to remember that in the short term the importance/success was defiantly greater in terms of symbolism and psyche than active reform. This is a very anachronistic viewpoint and of course a contemporaneous view would be very different but as a starting example to support such a view, with Blacks having received basic civil rights it was ... ... middle of paper ... ..., inefficient, traditional techniques. So despite the introduction of these Civil Rights Acts’, there was little improvement in black living standards. Overall it can be said that the Civil Rights Acts’ of 1866 and 1875 were extremely limited and in reality it was an ideology that lacked support and more importantly, enforcement. There were areas were they made an immediate impact however their future importance is of more relevance, as they have provided the foundation for future equality. They were drastic and controversial Acts’ especially considering a war had just been fought over the matter and so any effect was inevitably going to be limited. The long term benefits most certainly outweigh the short term effects here and so to this extent one must agree to the view in the question but if merely considering the direct, immediate effects then one must oppose.

Show More
Related

  • Effectiveness of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America

    1073 Words  | 3 Pages

    I think that over time the amendments achieved their aims, but it took far longer than intended by the lawmakers at the time. What they did do was give black Americans hope and made it possible for them to legally make changes to their way of life. This in itself was the start of the change.

    Read More

  • Reforms Introduced in the American South between 1865 and 1877

    363 Words  | 1 Pages

    Groups of people soon received new rights. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. It gave black Americans full citizenship and guaranteed them equal treatment. Also, it passed the Fourteenth Amendment to make sure that the Supreme Court couldn’t declare the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The amendment made blacks citizens of the United States and the states in which they lived. Also, states were forbidden to deprive blacks of life, liberty, or property without due process. Additionally, blacks could not be discriminated by the law. If a state would deprive blacks of their rights as citizens, it’s number of congressional representatives would be reduced. The Civil Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth Amendment affected both the North and the South.

    Read More

  • Civil War Reconstruction Dbq

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...dom and right to vote established by the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, blacks were still oppressed by strong black codes and Jim Crow laws. The federal government created strong legislation for blacks to be helped and educated, but it was ineffective due to strong opposition. Although blacks cried out to agencies, such as the Freemen's Bureau, declaring that they were "in a more unpleasant condition than our former" (Document E), their cries were often overshadowed by violence.

    Read More

  • The Life and Achievemets of Ida B. Wells

    2595 Words  | 6 Pages

    We know, however, that during the 1870s and 1880s, these rights were slowly and systematically taken away from blacks through the use of Jim Crow laws. Blacks saw their rights begin stripped away through legal, illegal, and often violent means. The vast majority of blacks were losing ground, and being forced back into conditions that were just slightly better than slavery. Blacks were kept down by various methods -- economic, social, and political -- but most typically through violence.

    Read More

  • Failure of Reconstruction for Freed Slaves

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    After years of a cruel war that pitted brother against brother, the United States of America entered into a period of time called Reconstruction. Reconstruction was an act implemented by Congress to help rebuild the majorly devastated southern states. Another of its goals was help newly freed slaves successfully merge into life as a free people among many hostile whites.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Reconstruction

    1004 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although many laws were passed that recognized African Americans as equals, the liberties they had been promised were not being upheld. Hoffman, Blum, and Gjerde state that “Union League members in a North Carolina county, upon learning of three or four black men who ‘didn’t mean to vote,’ threatened to ‘whip them’ and ‘made them go.’ In another country, ‘some few colored men who declined voting’ were, in the words of a white conservative, ‘bitterly persecute[ed]” (22). Black codes were also made to control African Americans. Norton et al. states that “the new black codes compelled former slaves to carry passes, observe a curfew, live in housing provided by a landowner, and give up hope of entering many desirable occupations” (476). The discrimination and violence towards African Americans during this era and the laws passed that were not being enforced were very disgraceful. However, Reconstruction was a huge stepping stone for the way our nation is shaped today. It wasn’t pretty but it was the step our nation needed to take. We now live in a country where no matter the race, everyone is considered equal. Reconstruction was a success. Without it, who knows where our nation would be today. African American may have never gained the freedoms they have today without the

    Read More

  • Racial Challenges African Americans Faced Throughout History

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...of religion, the freedom to assemble and civil rights such as the right to be free from discrimination such as gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. Throughout history, African Americans have endured discrimination, segregation, and racism and have progressively gained rights and freedoms by pushing civil rights movement across America. This paper addressed several African American racial events that took place in our nation’s history. These events were pivotal and ultimately led to the establishment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Civil Rights Act paved the way for future legislation that was not limited to African American civil rights and is considered a landmark piece of legislation that ending racism, segregation and discrimination throughout the United States.

    Read More

  • African American Reconstruction Essay

    997 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... many other things! “The object of the [Fourteenth] amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute quality of the two raves before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinction based upon color, or to enforce social as distinguished from political quality, or a commingling of the two raves upon terns unsatisfactory to either.” This is a quote from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court thought that the two raves should be separate but equal. But even though the two races were separate, it was still not equal because there were much less public restrooms, restaurants, and other things for the blacks in America.

    Read More

  • Why Is Reconstruction A Turning Point For Reconstruction

    714 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the reconstruction period, African Americans benefited from the civil rights act of March 1866 and the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment. However, for African Americans in the former confederacy, opportunities were limited as in1865 and 1866 the former confederacy states passed black codes’ a replacement of the former slave codes, which once again forcibly cemented the second-class status of African Americans. The most oppressive of the codes was against vagrancy, ...

    Read More

  • Civil Rights and Legislation in Mississippi

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    The civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 60’s was a monumental event in American history. The large amount of legislation passed in accordance with this movement was greatly outnumbered by the many horrendously, violent acts that occurred throughout it. Judicial decisions such as Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 should have been able to inspire hope within black communities. Yet the brutality of events such as the murder of Emmett Till and Medgar Evens, as well as staunch, white resistance like the Southern Manifesto, kept many African Americans desire for freedom repressed by their desire for safety. The civil rights movement was opposed with some of the most unrelenting resistance in the state of Mississippi. Organizations tackling integration in Mississippi were met with unyielding violence and discrimination, by both citizens and local officials. “…going into Mississippi to organize was not like going to any other state in the South. Mississippi was the heart and soul of segregation. It resisted integration more fiercely than any of the other southern states.”

    Read More

  • Slavery Dbq Essay

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though the issue of slavery was solved, racism continues and Southerners that stayed after the war passed Black Codes which subverted the ideas of freedom including the actions of state legislatures (Hakim 19). Black Codes were a set of laws that discriminated blacks and limited their freedom (Jordan 388). Such restrictions included: “No negro shall be permitted to rent or keep a house within said parish...No public meetings or congregations of negroes shall be allowed within said parish after sunset…” (Louisiana Black Codes 1865). A solution to this was the 14th Amendment. It meant now all people born in America were citizens and it “Prohibited states from revoking one’s life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” This meant all states had to...

    Read More

  • Civil Rights Issues In The Early 1600's

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    Since the beginning of time, people have been fighting for civil rights. As long as there are people in the world, there will be civil rights problems. Because of growing issues with civil rights, people have stared many fights and rally’s to fight for their rights. One major civil right problem was slavery. Another major problem was the mental health reform. Various historical and contemporary civil rights and reform movements made a big impact on U.S. society today.

    Read More

  • Steven Lawson Civil Rights Movement Analysis

    677 Words  | 2 Pages

    While he does not negate the fact that the civil rights activists were central to effecting this fundamental change, which would have not occurred otherwise, his storyline only engages with the most prominent figures of the civil rights movement, and even they get rater scant attention in his account. In his view, these men managed to successfully negotiate gradual advances towards racial progress (3). However, they were only able to do so because central political figures of the administration were willing to listen and act. In order to support his thesis, Lawson provides us with a concise summary of federal civil rights reforms beginning in the 1940s and the activism that fostered them. In doing so, he focuses on the policies of the different administrations and central events of the southern struggle for civil rights and closes his essay with a short discussion of the federal government’s renewed retreat from securing the civil rights of

    Read More

  • The Civil Rights Act of 1964

    1836 Words  | 4 Pages

    Before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, segregation in the United States was commonly practiced in many of the Southern and Border States. This segregation while supposed to be separate but equal, was hardly that. Blacks in the South were discriminated against repeatedly while laws did nothing to protect their individual rights. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ridded the nation of this legal segregation and cleared a path towards equality and integration. The passage of this Act, while forever altering the relationship between blacks and whites, remains as one of history’s greatest political battles.

    Read More

  • Essay On Civil Rights Movement

    2889 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...or southern blacks to vote. In 1967 the Supreme Court rules interracial marriage legal. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead at the age of thirty-nine. Also the civil rights act of 1968 is passed stopping discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. In 1988 President Reagan’s veto was overridden by congress passing the “Civil Rights Restoration Act” expanding the reach of non-discrimination laws within private institutions receiving federal funds. In 1991 President Bush. signs the, “Civil Rights Act of 1991”, strengthening existing civil rights laws. In 2008 President Obama is elected as the first African American president. The American Civil Rights Movement has made a massive effect on our history and how our country is today. Without it things would be very different. In the end however, were all human beings regardless of our differences.

    Read More

More about The Limited Effectiveness of the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 in Extending Rights to the Freed Slaves

Open Document