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Freedmen Nation Reasserts Civil Rights Authority Under the 1866 Act


The Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust has formally issued a Declaration of Civil Rights Authority Under the 1866 Act, reaffirming its rightful standing as the legal and political body empowered to defend and advance the rights of Verified Freedmen—those whose status derives directly from the aftermath of American chattel slavery and the promises made during Reconstruction.


The Civil Rights Act of 1866, enacted immediately after the 13th Amendment, was the first federal law to define citizenship and guarantee equal protection under the law. It was written to protect the very group we now identify and verify as Freedmen. Yet, today, its power has been diluted, misapplied, or altogether ignored.


This declaration corrects that course.


The Trust now publicly affirms that:


  • It recognizes the 1866 Act as the cornerstone of Freedmen legal protections and federal obligations.

  • It holds legal and moral standing to assert these rights on behalf of Verified Freedmen nationwide.

  • It rejects the dilution of Freedmen protections through forced racial classification schemes and federal neglect.

  • It demands recognition from federal, state, and private entities of the 1866 Act’s continuing authority as a legal foundation for reparations, protections, and redress.


This declaration is not symbolic. It is strategic.


Through the Trust’s legal arm, the American Freedmen Legal Fund, we will invoke this authority in advocacy, litigation, and negotiations. We will challenge policies that attempt to fold our unique status into ambiguous racial categories. We will oppose any reinterpretation of the law that undermines its original intent: to protect the formerly enslaved and their rightful heirs.


As government and institutions claim to uphold equity, we remind them that equity for Freedmen is not a modern DEI invention—it is a constitutional and statutory obligation born in 1866.


The time for recognition, enforcement, and fulfillment is now.


– Freedmen Nation

Freedmen Reparations Fund Trust

American Freedmen Legal Fund


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