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Civil Rights Crimes And The Federal Power To Punish Private Individuals For Interference With Federally Secured Rights, Howard M. Feuerstein

Vanderbilt Law Review

Participants in the current civil rights movement in the South have been subjected to countless acts of violence and intimidation committed by private individuals acting either on their own or as part of racist organizations. As a result of such acts of violence, new legislation has been introduced in Congress.' Yet, the federal system historically has placed strict limitations on the power of the national government to deal with the acts of private individuals. The time is therefore ripe for a re-examination of these limitations. In so doing,this article deals with acts of private individuals in the technical sense of …