What did the Civil Rights Act of 1875 guarantee?
Although Reconstruction was quickly losing steam, one more important piece of legislation, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, was passed by Congress. This law declared that all Americans, irrespective of their race, should have equal access to hotels, restaurants, railroad trains, and other accommodations. (Congress discussed including schools under this act, but this proposal proved too controversial and was omitted from the final version.) This act proved less powerful than the Civil Rights Act of 1866, because it required citizens whose rights had been violated to sue in the Courts, rather than treat civil rights violations as a crime. The act also proved short-lived, and was struck down by the Supreme Court in the Civil Rights Cases in 1883.