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President Johnson presents plans for Reconstruction. In 1865 President Andrew Johnson implemented a plan of Reconstruction that gave the white South a free hand in regulating the transition from slavery to freedom and offered no role to blacks in the politics of the South.
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13th amendment ratified.
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Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution approved by Congress.
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First Reconstruction Act passed over Johnson's veto. Second Reconstruction Act passed over Johnson's veto. Third Reconstruction Act passed over Johnson's veto.
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Fourth Reconstruction Act passed. Fourteenth Amendment ratified. Entitles all persons born or naturalized in the United States to citizenship and equal protection under the laws of the United States. Francis L. Cardozo elected secretary of state in South Carolina. Holds office from 1868 to 1872. Thaddeus Stevens, radical republican and supporter of land for Freedmen, dies.
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Former Union General Ulysses S. Grant becomes president. Although allied with the Radical Republicans in Congress he does not provide strong leadership for Reconstruction.
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Hiram Revels elected to U. S. Senate as the first black senator. Jasper J. Wright elected to South Carolina Supreme court. Fifteenth Amendment ratified. The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave the vote to all male citizens regardless of color or previous condition of servitude.
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Forty-second Congress. Five black members in the House of Representatives: Benjamin S. Turner of Alabama; Josiah T. Walls of Florida; and Robert Brown Elliot, Joseph H. Rainey and Robert Carlos DeLarge of South Carolina.
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Freedmen's Bureau abolished.
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Forty-third Congress. Six black members in House the House of Representatives.
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Blanche K. Bruce elected to U. S. Senate. Robert Smalls, black hero of the Civil War, elected to Congress as
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March 1--Civil Rights Act enacted by Congress. It provides blacks with the right to equal treatment in public places and transportation. The Supreme Court later declared this Act unconstitutional. Blanche Kelso elected as Senator of Mississippi. He is the first African-American Senator to serve a complete six year term.
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Forty-fourth Congress. Six black members in the House of Representatives.
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Rutherford B. Hayes inaugurated President of the United States.
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U. S. Senate votes not to seat P. B. S. Pinchback. Wade Hampton inaugurated as governor of South Carolina. The election of Hampton, a leader in the Confederacy, confirms fears that the South is not committed to Reconstruction.
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Forty-fifth Congress. Four black members in House. Last federal troops leave South Carolina effectively ending the Federal government's presence in the South. Robert Brown Elliott yields office of attorney general of South Carolina.
