High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American lawyer and politician who represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives and later served as the 33rd Governor of Massachusetts. In 1868, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Butler had a prominent role in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson . As Chairman of the House Committee on Reconstruction, Butler authored the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant, that gave federal authority to prosecute and destroy the Klan in the South. Butler authored, along with Sen. Charles Sumner, the Civil Rights Act of 1875, signed into law by President Grant. This law, a final act of Reconstruction, gave African American U.S. citizens the right to public accommodation such as hotels, restaurants, lodging, and public entertainment establishments.