Enforcement Acts in 1870-71 - Report Example

Topic: Lecturer: Presentation: Introduction The enforcement Acts were passed the United s Congress between 1870 and 1871 and were “criminal codes aimed at protecting the African Americans right to vote, to hold office, to serve on juries and to receive equal protection of laws”.1 The federal government was allowed to intervene in case the states failed to act. The Acts were targeted on the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) organization which was notorious of murdering blacks and some whites to prevent them from voting, holding office or to get involved in schools. The Acts were also passed following the ratification of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution in 1868 and 1870 consecutively. Since some politicians were members of the KKK, the states were afraid to take any action against the group, or they were too weak to act. Furthermore, those against the Klan always faced their wrath through beatings and lynching. It was until the Enforcement Act of 1871 (third Act) which is referred as the Ku Klux Klan Act that the Klan menace was dealt with as this Act transformed private criminal acts into federal crimes leading to imprisonment of many members of the Klan. However, even with the passage of these Acts, violence continued and the group is still in operation promoting extremist views of members and staging marches. The enforcement of these Acts was hindered by the judiciary which argued that the federal government had no jurisdiction over the issue since the Fourteenth Amendment did not give it a right over private matters. The aim of this paper is to discuss the Enforcements Acts of 1870-71 but before then, it will be crucial to discuss the Klan, its origins and motives in order to understand the content of the Acts. Background The Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1865 by six former confederate Army officers: Jones, James Crowe, Richard Reed, John Lester, Frank McCord and John Kennedy at Pulaski, Tennessee.2 These members had a belief in inherent inequality of all races hence could not agree with the notion of equality with African Americans. Instead, they sought to maintain and protect white supremacy through intimidation, whippings, beatings, and lynching. They wore long, loose-fitting clothes with occult symbols and white cloth witches’ hats which were cone shaped and scary and also bore strange names such as Grand Cyclops (president), Grand Magi (vice president), Grand Turk (assistant to president) and Night Hawks (other members).3At first, the group was formed as a social club to have fun, make mischief and play planks on individuals. When they were fed up with these acts, they started intimidating and the newly freed slaves and under the leadership of former confederate officer general Nathan Bedford Forrest (Grand Wizard), the Klan began violence in 1867. The emancipation proclamation of 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln freed all slaves in confederate states. However, since it was just a presidential decree, the Thirteenth Amendment to U.S constitution was passed by Congress in 1865 thus freeing all slaves in former Southern Confederate states. The Southern Whites were not happy with this decision as they depended on the slaves for their plantations. They thus passed the Black Codes to prevent the Blacks from exercising their rights but these were reversed by the Civil Rights Act of 1866. To matters even worse, the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S constitution was passed in 1868 giving full citizenship to anyone born in the U.S or freed slaves and the Fifteenth Amendment banning racial discrimination in voting was ratified in 1870. The Northerners had also relocated to the South to further their self-interests as scalawags and also for philanthropic reasons and joined with the freed slaves to further the rights of blacks through the Republican Party. The Southerners according to Brown and Webb had a dominant belief in innate inferiority of blacks and the dominant role of male whites. They thus aimed at protecting white supremacy and also their white women from the black man as well as to break the Republican rule and intimidation was the only way.4 They thus argue that emancipation freed racism in the U.S. The Southerners were thus intent on frustrating Reconstruction efforts after the Civil War as they were aimed at bringing racial equality and were against those who favored Reconstruction such as the Republicans. The KKK was crucial in furthering these aims and through intimidation, threats and lynching, it was able to prevent the blacks from exercising their new found rights. Blacks could not vote due to Klan violence nor enjoy their citizenship granted by the Fourteenth Amendment. As such, something had to be done to protect black rights hence the passage of the Enforcement Acts of 1870 and 1871. The Enforcement Act of 1870 was passed in May 31, 1870 by the 41st Congress and was “An Act to enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote in the several states of this union, and for other purposes.”5 The target was the Ku Klux Klan which was a racist organization and was preventing blacks to enjoy their rights. According to Wormser, the Act was also aimed at “achieving national unity where all races were considered equal under the law.”6 The Act banned use of terror and force to prevent Blacks from voting based on their racial background. Those who were found in contravention of the law were arrested and tried as common criminals. According to 15th Amendment, every person is eligible to vote despite their race, color, or previous condition of servitude and this is what this Act was aiming to achieve and those who did not follow this law be it KKK or government officials were liable to pay $500 to the person aggrieved and also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and be fined $500 or a jail sentence of not less than one month and not more than one year, or both, at the discretion of the court.7 The Act also gave the president full rights to use the armed forces to quell rebellions resulting from the Act. In some occasions, the Habeas Corpus would be suspended. Those who came together to conspire to violate the Act or to intimidate, injure, threaten or oppress citizens would be found guilty of felony thus would be liable to a fine not exceeding $ 5000 and maximum prison sentence not exceeding ten years.8 They would also be ineligible to, and disabled from holding any office or place of honor created by the constitution or laws of the U.S. At first, the states were reluctant to implement this Act due to fear of the Klan and since some politicians were sympathizers or members of the Klan. The states were weak in enforcing the Acts hence violence continued unabated in the Southern states. Read More