Congress had completed passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 on March 13, 1866 but President Johnson had vetoed the measure as unconstitutional and an intrusion on states' rights. Congress had failed to over-ride a previous veto of the Freedmen's Bureau bill but this time a more determined and united Senate voted 33-15 to succeed. The House voted three days later with similar success and the Civil Rights Bill became law, the first time in history a presidential veto had been over-turned. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
William A. Barnes, History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1868), 288.
Record Data
Date Certainty
Exact
Type
Lawmaking/Litigating
