In April 1866 Congress passed the first civil rights act in U.S. history. Radical Republicans Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens sponsored this legislation. Northern Republicans supported the act in response to the Black Codes many new governments in the South passed after the Civil War. Black Codes denied basic civil rights to freedpeople. Some of these codes restricted the right to bear arms and required freedpeople to sign annual labor contracts. The Civil Rights Act specifically made African Americans citizens and defined citizens as anyone born in the United States. African Americans were also given specific rights, such as the right to sue and to enter into contracts. The Act also provided for the basic right of equality under the law. This act represented the first time the federal government attempted to define U.S. citizenship and protect the rights of citizens. President Andrew Johnson—a strong supporter of states’ rights and opponent of African American suffrage—vetoed the Civil Rights Act. Congress overrode Johnson’s veto and passed the act.
