Page "Reconstruction Era of the United States" Paragraph 112

Immediately upon Inauguration in 1869, Grant bolstered Reconstruction by prodding Congress to readmit Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas into the Union, while ensuring their constitutions protected every citizens voting rights.

Grant met with prominent black leaders for consultation, and signed a bill into law that guaranteed equal rights to both blacks and whites in Washington D. C.

In Grant's two terms he strengthened Washington's legal capabilities.

He worked with Congress to create the Department of Justice and Office of Solicitor General, led by Attorney General Amos Akerman and the first Solicitor General Benjamin Bristow, who both prosecuted thousands of Klansmen under the Force Acts.

Grant sent additional federal troops to nine South Carolina counties to suppress Klan violence in 1871.

In 1872, Grant was the first American President to legally recognize an African American, P. B. S. Pinchback, governor of Louisiana.

Grant also used military pressure to ensure that African Americans could maintain their new electoral status ; won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment giving African Americans the right to vote ; and signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 giving people access to public facilities regardless of race.

To counter vote fraud in the Democratic stronghold of New York City, Grant sent in tens of thousands of armed, uniformed federal marshals and other election officials to regulate the 1870 and subsequent elections.

Democrats across the North then mobilized to defend their base and attacked Grant's entire set of policies.

On October 21, 1876 President Grant deployed troops to protect black and white Republican voters in Petersburg, Virginia.