Third Enforcement Act

Act signed by President Ulysses S. Grant on 20 April 1871, also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, to combat Klan vigilantism. It made certain acts by private persons federal offenses, including conspiracies to deprive citizens of civil rights, and let the President deploy federal troops and suspend habeas corpus; the last of three Enforcement Acts, its use by Grant dismantled the first Ku Klux Klan.