Historical Events Leading To The Act
The act was created to enforce Fourteenth Amendment which was passed after events that took place at the end of the Civil War. Southern States initially were reluctant to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and many refused. As a result, congress sent military to the south and initiated radical reconstruction in the South. Lynchings stated to become very popular along with the destruction of many properties.
Also, Abraham Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. This document issued that all slaves should be freed in the states that had seceded from the union. This was a presidential order, and there was concern that it might be ignored. As a result, United States Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery completely. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was unsuccessful in ending slavery, and many states created “Black Codes” which were laws that put strict regulations on the newly freed slaves.
Read more about this topic: Enforcement Acts
Famous quotes containing the words historical, events, leading and/or act:
“Reason, progress, unselfishness, a wide historical perspective, expansiveness, generosity, enlightened self-interest. I had heard it all my life, and it filled me with despair.”
—Katherine Tait (b. 1923)
“There are no little events in life, those we think of no consequence may be full of fate, and it is at our own risk if we neglect the acquaintances and opportunities that seem to be casually offered, and of small importance.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)
“It is sometimes called the City of Magnificent Distances, but it might with greater propriety be termed the City of Magnificent Intentions.... Spacious avenues, that begin in nothing, and lead nowhere; streets, mile-long, that only want houses, roads, and inhabitants; public buildings that need but a public to be complete; and ornaments of great thoroughfares, which only lack great thoroughfares to ornament—are its leading features.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“of artists dying in childbirth, wise-women charred at the stake,
centuries of books unwritten piled behind these shelves;
and we still have to stare into the absence
of men who would not, women who could not, speak
to our life—this still unexcavated hole
called civilization, this act of translation, this half-world.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)