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SOURCES
African-American Odyssey Textbook https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/FreedmensBureau.htm http://learningabe.info/Lincolnsreconstruction.html https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_uncivil.html https://www.britannica.com/topic/Civil-Rights-Act-United-States-1875 -
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Lincoln's Reconstruction Plan
Lincoln announces his reconstruction plan. It offers a pardon to all white Southerners who take an oath of future loyalty and accept wartime measures abolishing slavery. Whenever 10% of the number of 1860 voters take the loyalty oath in any state, those loyal citizens can then establish a state government. -
Congress's Reconstruction Plan
Congress passes its own reconstruction plan, the Wade-Davis bill. It requires a majority of 1860 voters to take a loyalty oath, but only those who swear an "ironclad" oath of never having fought against the Union can participate in reconstructing their state's government. After Congress adjourns, Lincoln refuses to sign the Wade-Davis bill, so it is "pocket-vetoed" and not implemented. -
Freedmen's Bureau
Congress creates the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau, within the War Department. It provides temporary relief to the freed people in the form of basic shelter and medical care, assistance in labor-contract negotiation, the establishment of schools, and similar services. At its peak, though, the Freedmen's Bureau only has 900 agents in the South. -
Robert E Lee Surrenders
The Civil War ends with Confederate General Robert E. Lee's surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, Virginia. -
Assassination of Lincoln
Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C. -
Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction Plan
President Johnson implements his reconstruction plan. It offers general amnesty to those taking an oath of future loyalty, although high-ranking Confederate officials and wealthy Confederates have to petition the president for individual pardons. The plan also requires states to ratify the 13th Amendment which prohibits slavery and to repudiate Confederate debts. -
Congress and Johnson's Plan
Congress refuses to recognize the state governments reconstructed under Johnson's plan. Republicans are disturbed by the reluctance of white Southerners to ratify the 13th Amendment, their refusal to grant voting rights to black men, their enactment of black codes which limit the rights and liberties of blacks, and their election of former Confederates to state and national offices. -
Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau Act
Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau Act, which extends the temporary agency's life indefinitely and gives the military the responsibility of protecting the civil rights of black Americans in the former Confederate states. President Johnson vetoes the bill, surprising many Republicans. -
Civil Rights Act of 1866
Congress enacts the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and guarantees them equal rights under the law. The statute makes it a federal crime, punishable by fine and imprisonment, to deprive any person of his or her civil rights. Judicial authority over the act is assigned to the federal courts. President Johnson vetoes the bill. Congress passes the bill again; Johnson vetoes it again; and Congress overrides his veto. -
14th Amendment
Congress approves a 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. All persons born or naturalized in the United States. It thereby attempts to give the citizenship clause of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 more legitimacy and permanency by incorporating it into the Constitution. The amendment also denies states the authority to deprive citizens of their privileges and immunities, the due process of law, or the equal protection of the law. -
Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau Act (2)
Congress passes the Freedmen's Bureau Act a second time. President Johnson vetoes it again, but this time Congress overrides his veto. -
First Reconstruction Act
Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act. States have to enact new constitutions that grant voting rights to black men. States must ratify the 14th Amendment in order to be represented in Congress. President Johnson vetoes the bill, but Congress overrides the veto. The Southern states, though, refuse to carry out the law. -
Second Reconstruction Act
Congress passes the second Reconstruction Act. It gives the military district commanders directions on holding state constitutional conventions. The president vetoes the bill and Congress overrides his action. The president is forced to implement Congressional reconstruction, but the Johnson administration interprets it as narrowly as possible. -
Third Reconstruction Act
Congress enacts the third Reconstruction Act. It affirms the authority of the military district commanders to remove state officials from office. -
Andrew Johnson is Impeached
The House of Representatives impeaches President Andrew Johnson, who had angered Republicans by his interference with and intransigence on reconstruction policies. -
Fourth Reconstruction Act
Congress passes the fourth Reconstruction Act. It allows the proposed state constitutions to be ratified by a simple-majority vote in each state. -
15th Amendment
Congress passes the proposed 15th Amendment to the US Constitution. It attempts to shore up the constitutional protection of black voting rights by stipulating that voting rights cannot be denied on the basis of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude." It also gives Congress the enforcement authority through appropriate legislation. -
First Enforcement Act
Congress enacts the first Enforcement Act to enforce the 14th and 15 th Amendments. The law makes the bribing, intimidation, or racial discrimination of voters into federal crimes. The statute also strengthens federal authority against anti-black groups like the Ku Klux Klan by outlawing conspiracies aimed at preventing the exercise of constitutional rights. -
Second Enforcement Act
Congress passes the second Enforcement Act authorizing federal supervision of Congressional elections in cities with populations exceeding 20,000. The South was largely unaffected by this law, however, since there were few cities of that size in the region. -
Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act
In response to President Grant's request for more federal authority to combat anti-black violence in the South, Congress enacts the Ku Klux Klan Act. It grants the federal government the authority to punish the denial of equal protection or privileges and immunities. In addition, the statute bestows on the president the power to suspend habeas corpus and to use the military against anti-civil rights conspiracies. -
Civil Rights Act of 1875
The outgoing Republican Congress enacts the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It outlaws racial segregation in all public accommodations regulated by law, such as hotels, theaters, steamships, and railroads. The US Supreme Court will rule the law unconstitutional in 1883. -
Southern States under Reconstruction Policy
Samuel Tilden wins a narrow majority of the popular vote against Rutherford Hayes. The electoral votes in three states- South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana are disputed. They are the only Southern states left with federal troops stationed there under Reconstruction policy. A bipartisan electoral commission is appointed by Congress to settle the controversy... -
Southern States under Reconstruction Policy (continued)
... On a party-line vote, it gives all the disputed electoral votes to Hayes, making him president. After his inauguration, President Hayes removes the final federal troops from the three states. -
End of Reconstruction
After his inauguration, President Hayes removes the remaining federal troops in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana from political duty (guarding the statehouses). Redeemer governments assume power in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. Reconstruction is formally ended.
