14th Amendment • 15th Amendment • Civil Rights Act of 1866 • Enforcement Act of 1870 • Enforcement Act of 1871 • Third Enforcement Act, 1871 • Civil Rights Act of March 1875
over 80 years ▪ Proved Congress could cooperate and pass civil rights legislation ▪ Commission on Civil Rights helped identify problems and find solutions ▪ New Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice helped enforce more effective future legislation “History has demonstrated that inadequate legislation supported by mass action can accomplish more than adequate legislation which remains unenforced ” - Martin Luther King Jr. (In a letter to Richard Nixon, 1957)