1871

The Ku Klux Klan Act is passed, giving the federal government the right to mete out punishment where civil rights laws are not upheld and to use military force against anti-civil rights conspiracies.

The Second Enforcement Act is passed to enforce rights granted to African Americans by the amended Constitution.

In South Carolina, Grant imposes martial law and suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

Whites in Georgia vote in a Redeemer government.

The African-American Fisk Jubilee Singers go on national tour. The proceeds from the tour go toward the founding of Fisk University.

National Equal Rights League leader, Octavius V. Catto, is assassinated by a white man attempting to discourage black voting in a key Philadelphia election. Catto’s funeral is the largest public funeral in Philadelphia since Lincoln’s and his death is mourned in black communities throughout the country.