Reply #6: The town that started the first Civil Rights Movement.

[happyslug]

Here is the report on the 1866 Memphis Riot that lead Congress to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (and the 14th Amendment to make sure the Civil Rights Act of 1866 was Constitutional)

For more on the Memphis Police Riot of 1866 see:
http://www.freedmensbureau.com/tennessee/outrages/memphisriot.htm

Paragraph 1 of the 14th Amendment reads as follows:
All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

The 14th is the most important Amendment to the Constitution ever made. The rest of the Amendment is minor compared to the First Paragraph. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 (Still on the books) was the most effective Civil Rights era (even after being gutted in the Civil Rights Cases on the 1880s). Both the 14th Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 came out of the Memphis Police Riot of 1866.