On April 9, 1866, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over President Andrew Johnson’s veto. The law declared that all persons born in the United States, except most Native Americans at the time, were citizens. It aimed to protect the civil rights of formerly enslaved people in the aftermath of the Civil War. The act guaranteed basic rights such as making contracts and owning property. It set an important precedent for federal protection of civil rights. The law also laid groundwork for the Fourteenth Amendment, which later strengthened these protections.
