Throughout his political career, Andrew Johnson was a strong supporter of states’ rights. While he opposed secession initially and slavery eventually, he also held deep convictions against giving citizenship to African Americans or what he called the “Africanization” of the nation. This was represented in his Veto of the Civil Rights Act. The effect of the act would be to grant full citizenship to newly freed slaves and enshrine their civil rights. Johnson objected that this would be discriminatory against immigrants, who had to overcome hurdles to citizenship. Extending citizenship regardless of qualifications, he argued, would make Black people a favored class of people, and it was unjust to force the states to accede to this. He in fact believed that the rights enumerated in the federal bill were already protected under the auspices of the states.