Ku Klux Klan Act
Definition
(also known as the 1871 Act, 42 U.S.C. §1985) A statute Congress enacted in 1871 to address domestic terrorism perpetrated by the Ku Klux Klan in the Reconstruction South. The act allows those injured by domestic terrorism to recover against those responsible by showing class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus motivated a conspiracy to deprive the victims of equal rights guaranteed by the federal law or the Constitution.