“What are civil rights?” James F. Wilson asked his colleagues in the United States House of Representatives on March 1, 1866. Less than a year since the end of the Civil War, with Congress consumed with the task of reconstructing a nation torn apart, the Iowa Republican stood on the floor of the House to defend what was referred to as the “Civil Rights” bill. The proposed law – its full title was “An Act to protect all Persons in the United States in their Civil Rights, and furnish the Means of their vindication” – would provide federal protection of certain basic rights for the millions of recently emancipated black Americans.