Our nation’s history on civil rights has been a story of slow and uneven but also unrelenting progress. Such progress has often been aided by influential pieces of legislation, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1871 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or constitutional amendments such as the Reconstruction Amendments. As we have sadly seen recently, these legal reforms did not end all bigotry in our nation, but they gave minorities the legal tools to defend their civil rights.

One of these tools was 42 U.S.C. 1983, enacted as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1871 by 56% of the House of Representatives, 70% of the Senate, and President Ulysses S. Grant. This federal law gave citizens the power to sue public officials who violated their civil rights for monetary damages. Said Representative David Lowe about the need for this legislation: