Legislation · 1866

Civil Rights Act of 1866

Introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, the act declared all persons born in the United States, except Indians not taxed, to be citizens and guaranteed citizens of every race the same rights as white citizens to make contracts, sue, hold property and enjoy the “full and equal benefit of all laws.” President Andrew Johnson vetoed it as a stride toward centralization; Congress overrode him, the House voting 122–41 on April 9, 1866.

“That all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby declared to be citizens of the United States; and such citizens, of every race and color, without regard to any previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude…”

Senator Lyman Trumbull (sponsor), April 9, 1866

Why it matters

The first federal law to define citizenship and protect civil rights, it passed with near-unanimous Republican support; doubts about its constitutionality led Congress to write its guarantees into the Fourteenth Amendment.

Read the full text at history.house.gov

Primary Source

The original record, reproduced or linked from the institution that holds it. Primary sources show what people said and did in their own words.

Subjects

civil rights citizenship reconstruction equal protection

From the library

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Thirteenth Amendment

The amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude throughout the United States, except as punishment for a crime, and empowered Congress to enforce the ban by appropriate legislation. The Senate approved it in April 1864, and the House, after an intense campaign by President Lincoln, followed on January 31, 1865; ratification was completed on December 6, 1865.

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