Kids in the House

April 09, 1866

On this date, the House overrode President Andrew Johnson's veto of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866 with near unanimous Republican support, 122 to 41, marking the first time Congress legislated upon civil rights. First introduced by Senate Judiciary Chairman Lyman Trumbull, the bill mandated that "all persons born in the United States," with the exception of American Indians, were "hereby declared to be citizens of the United States." To Radical Republicans, the measure seemed the next logical step after the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment on December 18, 1865, which abolished slavery.

April 10, 1972

On this date, President Richard Nixon signed into law H.R. 8787 (Public Law 92-271) creating a Delegate to Congress for the American territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Beginning with the election of James White in 1794 as the first Delegate in American history from the "Territory South of the River Ohio" (modern-day Tennessee), statutory representatives—positions created by federal statute rather than the Constitution—have pursued the interests of U.S. territories in the national legislature. Until 1898, every Delegate had represented a territory from mainland North America. But as the United States acquired land overseas in a rush to expand its geopolitical footprint at the turn of the 20th century, Congress was hesitant to grant representation to island territories with predominantly nonwhite populations. For Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, it would take decades to win a voice in Congress.

April 11, 1862

On this date, Radical Republicans under the direction of Thaddeus Stevens rammed a measure through the House that abolished the practice of slavery in the District of Columbia. Introduced in December 1861, the legislation provided immediate freedom to enslaved persons of the federally-controlled district. The act preceded the Emancipation Proclamation—signed by President Abraham Lincoln on New Years Day 1863—freeing slaves in captured Confederate territories and the Thirteenth Amendment which abolished slavery everywhere in the United States.

April 12, 1924

On this date, the House passed the 1924 Immigration Act—a legislative expression of the xenophobia, particularly towards eastern and southern European immigrants, that swept America in the decade of the 1920s. Authored by Representative Albert Johnson, the bill passed with broad support from western and southern Representatives by a vote of 323 to 71. Among its provisions, the act created a permanent quota system based on "national origin." It limited the number of immigrants that could be admitted to the country to two percent of the total number of individuals from each nationality that resided in the United States in 1890. The measure also excluded Japanese immigrants—a ban that would not be lifted until 1952.