BETRAYAL'S NADIR

Image from http://s2.quickmeme.com/…/f03c65dedb31f82e1a038c79f66aa478b…. The caption says: "I passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866," under the picture of Rutherford B. Hayes, a future President. That Act gave the freedmen the same rights as white persons to sue and be sued; to hold property, and to testify in court. Sadly, Hayes' election against Tilden in 1876, resulted in the infamous compromise over the election's controversy, with Hayes carrying the electoral vote and Samuel B. Tilden the popular vote. As a result, Hayes and the Republicans jettisoned the blacks and their "rights" to the South, in exchange for the White House, and non-enforcement of civil rights laws. The ensuing decades of oppression and peonage brought on by that betrayal is known as our "nadir."