Civil Rights Act of 1875

1875-03-01

Reconstruction-era US federal law signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on 1 March 1875, guaranteeing equal treatment in public accommodations and public transportation and prohibiting exclusion from jury service. Originally drafted by Senator Charles Sumner in 1870, it was poorly enforced and was the last federal civil rights law until 1957. In 1883 the Supreme Court struck down its public-accommodation sections in the Civil Rights Cases; parts were later re-adopted in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968.