Reconstruction

By sashadavis

  • Emancipation Proclamation was issued

    Frees slaves in states in rebellion and authorizes the enlistment of black troops.

  • Emancipation Proclamation was issued

    Frees slaves in states in rebellion and authorizes the enlistment of black troops.
  • Period: to

    Reconstruction Timeline

    The Reconstruction era lasted 14 years (1863 to 1877) in American history. Lincoln's goal in the Civil War was to keep the nation together. And in this, the war and Reconstruction were a success. The Confederacy was destroyed for good, and every state that had seceded was readmitted to the Union.
  • Period: to

    Reconstruction Timeline

    The Reconstruction era lasted 14 years (1863 to 1877) in American history. Lincoln's main goal in the Civil War was to keep the nation together. And in this, the war and Reconstruction were a success. The Confederacy was destroyed for good, and every state that had seceded was readmitted to the Union.

  • Lincoln reelected president

  • The Freedmen's Bureau established.

    Provides assistance to emancipated African Americans. Abolished in 1872.

  • Lee surrenders

    Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomatox Court House. Joseph E. Johnston's surrender in North Carolina on April 18 effectively ends the Civil War.

  • President Abraham Lincoln assassinated

    Vice President Andrew Johnson becomes president.

  • 13th Amendment ratified

    Abolishes slavery in the United States.

  • Black Codes enacted

    Southern states enact laws restricting rights of African Americans.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1866

    Confers citizenship on African Americans and guarantees equal rights.

  • Memphis Race Riot

    White civilians and police kill 46 African Americans and destroy 90 houses, schools, and four churches in Memphis, Tennessee.

  • New Orleans Race Riot

    Police kill more than 40 black and white Republicans and wound more than 150.

  • Ku Klux Klan

    A secret organization to intimidate African Americans and restore white rule is founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.

  • Reconstruction Acts

    Congress divides the former Confederacy into five military districts and requires elections in which African American men can vote.

  • President Johnson's Impeachment

    Trial By one vote, the U.S. Senate fails to remove the president from office.

  • Fourteenth Amendment ratified

    Guarantees due process and equal protection under the law to African Americans.

  • Ulysses S. Grant elected President

    The former Union general becomes the 18th president.

  • First Redeemer Government

    Tennessee is the first state to replace a bi-racial Republican state government with an all-white Democratic government, followed by Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia in 1870.

  • First black senator elected

    Hiram Revels of Mississippi elected to U. S. Senate as the first black senator.

  • Fifteenth Amendment ratified

    Extends the vote to all male citizens regardless of racer or previous condition of servitude.

  • 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.

  • Freedmen's Bureau abolished.

  • First African American governor

    P. B. S. Pinchback, acting governor of Louisiana from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873. Pinchback, a black politician, was the first black to serve as a state governor, although due to white resistance, his tenure is extremely short.

  • Democrats control the Forty-third Congress

    For the first time since before the Civil War, Democrats control both houses of Congress. Robert Smalls, black hero of the Civil War, elected to Congress as representative of South Carolina. Blanche K. Bruce elected to U. S. Senate.

  • Civil Rights Act of 1875 enacted by Congress

    Guarantees equal rights to African Americans in public accomodations and jury service. Ruled unconstitutional in 1883.

  • Disputed Presidential election

    Republicans challenged the validity of the voting in South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana.

  • 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.

  • Rutherford B. Hayes inaugurated President.

    Electoral Commissoin awards disputed electoral votes tot he republican candidate.

  • Reconstruction ends

    President Rutherford Hayes withdraws federal troops from the South protecting the Civil Rights of African Americans.