Just as Republicans had passed several civil rights laws during the Civil War, they passed several more after the war. The first was that of 1866, making it illegal to deprive a person of civil rights because of race, color, or previous servitude. Democrats not only opposed that bill but Democratic President Andrew Johnson even vetoed it; however, Republicans overrode his veto to the jubilation of both black and white civil rights advocates – and the bill became law. Two other civil rights laws were passed that year, one protecting marriages of blacks and one prohibiting slave-hunting. In 1867, five more civil rights laws great rejoicing occurred at the passage of the 15th amendment republicans passed laws to protect marriage were passed, providing for voting rights and for the enforcement and protection of other civil rights. Democratic President Andrew Johnson vetoed three of those five bills, but Republicans again overrode his vetoes. Republicans passed two more civil rights laws in 1868, another in 1869, four more in 1870, two more in 1871, one in 1873, and another in 1875. These last nine civil rights bills were passed under Republican President Ulysses S. Grant, who signed rather than vetoed the bills. African Americans watching civil rights progress at the Capitol greeted the passage of civil rights bills with great celebration.
By 1875, only a decade after the Civil War, Republicans had successfully passed almost two-dozen civil rights laws; and black American legislators often played significant roles in the debates surrounding democrat president Andrew Johnson regularly vetoed civil rights bills republican president Ulysses s. grant signed civil rights bills celebrating the passage of republican civil rights bills the passage of these laws. One such example involved a civil rights bill in 1871 a bill to allow the federal government to punish Klan violence. During the debates on that bill, Representative Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina addressed the issue of southern violence and delivered a compelling speech:
The Democratic Party of the South as evidenced in the utterances of its recognized organs official writings and leaders exhibits the declared purpose to defeat the ballot with the bullet and other coercive means. I have presented a few of the manifold proofs in support of the facts warranting the passage of this bill. I have shown the declared purpose of the Ku Klux organization, and I refer to the official records of nearly every southern State during the past ten months to show how that bloody purpose has been in part executed. This bill will tend in some degree to prevent its full achievement. I do not wish to be understood as speaking for the colored man alone when I demand instant protection for the loyal men of the South. No sir my demand is not so restricted. The white Republican of the South is republican U. S. rep. Robert b. Elliott Democrats would drive him into exile the pitiless lash, or doom seeking your revenge for political power lost by moving at midnight along the path of the assassin!. I trust, sir that this bill will pass quickly, and be quickly enforced lest the Democratic Party triumph in the States of the South through armed violence. Also hunted down and murdered or scourged for his opinion’s sake, and during the past two years more than six hundred loyal men of both races have perished in my State alone. Yet, sir, it is true that these masked murderers strike chiefly at the black race. Simply because he exercises his privileges as an American freeman, you with him to swift murder Rep. Joseph Hayne Rainey, another member from South Carolina, also delivered a powerful speech during the debates on that bill, explaining why blacks were most often the targets of Klan violence:
When we call to mind the fact that this Klan persecution is waged against men for the simple reason that they dare vote with the Republican Party that saved the Union intact, the question is sometimes asked, “Why do not the courts of law afford redress?” We answer, that the courts are in many instances under the control of those Democrats who are wholly inimical enemies to the impartial administration of law and equity. What benefit would result from appeal republican U. S. rep. Joseph h. Rainey ride into power over the dead body of a legitimate determined to stand by the Republican Party and the grotto tribunals courts whose officers are secretly in sympathy with the very evil against which we are striving?. If the Negroes numbering one-eighth of the population of these United States would only cast their votes in the interest of the Democratic Party, all open measures of violence against them would be immediately suspended and their rights as American citizens recognized.
