On November 8, People's (Populist) Party candidate James B. Weaver (Iowa) wins twenty-two electoral votes but former President Grover Cleveland (Democrat) defeats both Weaver and Republican President Benjamin Harrison to win the presidency. Cleveland thus serves as both the twenty-second and twenty-fourth President.

On October 16, the U.S. Supreme Court in the Civil Rights Cases pronounces the 1875 Civil Rights Act unconstitutional.

The Civil Rights Act of 1875 becomes law on March 1 with President Ulysses Grant's signature.