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Freedmen's Bureau
The Freedmen's Bureau was established by Congress to help millions of former black slaves and poor whites in the South after the Civil War. This organization provided food, housing and medical aid, established schools and helped with jobs. -
Civil War Ends
The Civil War was caused by uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of national government to prohibit slavery in places that weren't states yet. Robert E. Lee surrendered the last major Confederate army to Ulysses S. Grant. The last battle was fought in Palmito Ranch, Texas. -
Lincoln Assassinated
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C by a famous actor and Confederate sympathizer, John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was shot in the head, the attack happened five days after Robert E. Lee surrendered his massive army. John Wilkes Booth original plan was to kidnap Lincoln but it did not work out. -
13th Amendment Ratified
The 13th Amendment was meant to abolish slavery in the U.S after the Civil War. The ratification came eight months after the war ended but it represented the climax struggle against slavery. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
This Act declared that all persons born in the U.S were now citizens without regard to race, color, or previous conditions. As citizens they could do anything anyone else could, like having personal property. Anyone who denied the rights of former slaves were guilty and would be punished. -
Memphis Race Riots
The Memphis race riots was series of violent events, the racial violence was ignited by political, social, and racial tensions following the Civil War, early Reconstruction. The riots reflected the anger and frustration felt by many white citizens and particularly former Confederates, who had suffered the agony of a bitter defeat at the hands of a black and white Union army. -
New Orleans Race Riots
White democrats, including police and firemen, attacked Republicans, mostly black, while they paraded outside the Mechanics Institute in New Orleans. 35 New Orleans black citizens were killed while more than 100 were wounded. -
1st Reconstruction Act
Also known as "Military Reconstruction Acts," the act applied to all the ex-Confederate states in the South, except Tennessee who had already ratified the Fourteenth Amendment. It split the states into five military districts, each under the control of a Northern General whose responsibility it was to protect life and property. -
2nd Reconstruction Act
This Act supplemented the First Reconstruction Act. It helped answer the problem that the first Reconstruction Act had with the Southern states and their confusion to whose role it was to reinforce the legislation. It established and clarified that the military commanders held responsibility to register voters and hold elections in their territories. -
3rd Reconstruction Act
This Act gave supreme power to the five Union generals overseeing Reconstruction in the five districts of the South. Each district included several former states of the Confederacy, with the exception of Tennessee, which was never under military rule. These generals held the power to remove any official, elected or otherwise. -
4th Reconstruction Act
The Fourth Reconstruction Act was determined that the proposed state constitutions were to be ratified by a simple process of taking the majority vote in each state. -
14th Amendment Ratified
The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to everyone born or naturalized in the U.S. This included former slaves who were freed after the Civil War. -
Grant Elected President
Ulysses S. Grant was an American soldier and politician who served as the 18th president of the U.S nominated by the Republicans. He commanded the victorious Union Army during the Civil War, and after the war he became a national hero. -
15th Amendment Ratified
The U.S Constitution prohibits the federal government and each state from denying a citizen the right to vote based on color or race. This Amendment was the third and last of the Reconstruction Amendments. -
1st Black Senator Elected
Hiram Rhodes Revel was the first black member of the U.S Congress in 1870. As a Republican U.S senator, he was also a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator. He was born free in North Carolina, the later moved to Ohio where he voted before the Civil War. -
1st Black Governor Elected
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was an American publisher and politician, a Union Army Officer, and the first black governor elected. He was born free in Macon, Georgia and was one of the most prominent African American officeholders during the Reconstruction. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
This Act guaranteed African Americans equal treatment in public transportation and public accommodations and service on juries. It prohibited racial discrimination in public places and facilities such as restaurants and public transportation. -
Compromise of 1876
The Compromise was an unwritten deal that settled the intensity disputed 1876 election, arranged by U.S Congressmen. It resulted in the United States federal government pulling the last troops out of the South, and ended the Reconstruction Era. -
Reconstruction Ends
Reconstruction ended when national attention turned away from the integration of former slaves as equal citizens letting white Democrats to recapture southern politics. Ending with the Presidential election, which put Republican Rutherford B. Hayes in office in exchange for the withdrawal of federal troops from the South.
