On April 20, 1871, the House approved An Act to Enforce the Provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United Sates and other provisions.
Post-Civil War, the 13th 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution were passed. In 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery. In 1868, the 14th Amendment defined citizenship and guaranteed due process and equal protection under the law. In 1870, the 15th Amendment precluded abridgement â that is, civil rights granted by the federal government or the Constitution such as âthe right of citizens of the United States to voteâ could not be denied or abridged by state law.
âThe KKK Actâ
Notwithstanding, vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan threatened African Americans and their white allies in the South. Thus the 1871 act was dubbed âThe KKK Act.â It meant to stop the violence by giving President Ulysses S. Grant the right to intervene and take actions including suspending habeas corpus, deploying the U.S. military, declaring martial law and imposing penalties against terrorist organizations.