Editing Reconstruction era (section)

===Effective civil rights executive===
President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] was considered an effective civil rights executive, concerned about the plight of [[African Americans]].{{sfnp|Kahan|2018|p=61}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H. W. |title=The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace |publisher=Anchor Books |year=2013 |isbn=9780307475152 |location=New York |pages=463–479}}</ref> Grant met with prominent black leaders for consultation and signed a bill into law, on March 18, 1869, that guaranteed equal rights to both blacks and whites, to serve on juries, and hold office, in Washington D.C.{{sfnp|Kahan|2018|p=61}}<ref name=Spxiii/> In 1870 Grant signed into law a [[Naturalization Act of 1870|Naturalization Act]] that opened a path to citizenship for foreign-born Black residents in the US.{{sfnp|Kahan|2018|p=61}} Additionally, Grant's [[United States Postmaster General|Postmaster General]], [[John Creswell]] used his patronage powers to integrate the postal system and appointed a record number of African-American men and women as postal workers across the nation, while also expanding many of the mail routes.{{sfnp|Osborne|Bombaro|2015|pp=6, 12, 54}}{{sfnp|Chernow|2017|p=629}} Grant appointed Republican abolitionist and champion of black education [[Hugh Lennox Bond]] as U.S. Circuit Court judge.{{sfnp|Chernow|2017|p=628}}