llowed white southerners to establish new state governments, repudiate secession, and abrogate the Confederate debt but otherwise accorded a free hand in controlling local affairs. When these new governments quickly enacted the repressive Black Codes, most northern Republicans turned against the president.
             The Thirty-ninth Congress assembled in December 1865, Radical Republicans, led by Stevens, call for abrogation of the Johnson-authorized state governments and the establishment of new ones based on equality before the law and universal manhood suffrage. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 outlined the rights all Americans were to enjoy regardless of race. These included the rights to
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