African americans

African Americans After the US Civil War

  • Period: to

    1865-1877

    Reconstruction Era: Period of federal efforts to rebuild the South and establish civil and political rights for African Americans.
    Freedmen's Bureau established: Provided food, clothing, medical care, and education to formerly enslaved people.
    14th Amendment ratified: Defines citizenship and prohibits states from denying any person "life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."
  • Period: to

    13th Amendment ratified

    Abolishes slavery in the United States
  • 15th Amendment ratified

    15th Amendment ratified: Prohibits states and the federal government from denying a citizen the right to vote based on "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."
    Sharecropping system: Develops in the South, trapping many African Americans in a cycle of debt and poverty.
    Rise of Jim Crow laws: Southern states enact discriminatory laws that segregate public spaces and disenfranchise Black voters.