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Thirteenth Amendment approved in January.
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Congress establishes Freedmen's Bureau in March to provide assistance to the emancipated slaves.
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President Johnson announces his plan of Presidential Reconstruction (1865-7).
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Southern legislatures begin "Black Codes" to re-establish white supremacy.
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An organization primarily composed of Confederate Army veterans founds the Ku Klux Klan
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Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution approved by Congress.
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A race riot erupts in Memphis, TN and many blacks are killed or injured.
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Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act.
The South has to obey the terms of the act against their favor. -
The Opelousas Massacre in Louisiana. An estimated 200 to 300 black Americans are killed.
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Former Union General Ulysses S. Grant becomes president.
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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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The Ku Klux Klan Act is passed. It gives the federal government power to punish violators of civil rights laws.
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The Freedmen's Bureau is terminated.
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President Grant wins reelection against his Democratic/Liberal Republican opponent Horace Greeley.
