Enforcement Provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1866: A Legislative History in Light of Runyon v. McCrary

• NCJ Number: 116493
• Journal: Yale Law Journal Volume: 98 Issue: 3 Dated: (January 1989) Pages: 565-595
• Author(s): R J Kaczorowski
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 31 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article examines the legislative and enforcement history of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, focusing on whether the statute provides remedies for private acts of racial discrimination which violate the right to contract provided for in section one of the statute.

Abstract

Two important cases, Runyon v. McCrary and Patterson v. McLean Credit Union, raise the issues of whether the framers of the Statute intended it to protect civil rights not only from discriminatory State action but also from private discrimination. The article argues that the legislative and enforcement history of the statute show that the framers did not intend to limit its interpretations to State action. Instead, they did not distinguish between State and private action but intended that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 confer jurisdiction on the Federal courts to give direct relief to those who were victims of civil rights violations. 146 footnotes.