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Reconstruction Timeline
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Thirteenth Amendment
The temporary Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (known as the Freedmen's Bureau) is established within the War Department. -
Robert E. Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant.
The leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. The bloody Civil War officially comes to and end. -
Race riots break out in Memphis, Tennessee
White people begin attacking African Americans on the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. Over 40 African Americans are killed and hundreds of homes and churches are burned. -
The first southern state is readmitted to the Union.
Tennessee becomes the first state from the South to be allowed back into the United States. It was also the last state to leave the Union when the war began. -
14th Amendment Ratified
It revokes the three-fifths compromise in the Constitution and creates a new federal category of citizenship. It is quite possibly the most important constitutional amendment ever ratified. -
Department of Justice Created
Congress creates the Department of Justice. -
Over 100 African Americans are killed in the Colfax Massacre
A group of white people called the White League get into a fight with the Louisiana state militia. The militia is made of almost all African Americans and over 100 of them are killed, including over 50 who were killed after they surrendered. -
Panic of 1870
Financial panic and depression follow the failure of the Philadelphia investment house owned by Jay Cooke, who had helped finance the Union war effort by selling federal bonds to farmers and workers. Of the country's 364 railroads, 89 will go bankrupt. Some 18,000 businesses will fail in the next two years. -
Congress passes the Civil Rights Bill of 1875
Congress passes the last bill of Reconstruction, which makes segregation in public places illegal. However, the Supreme Court overturns the Civil Rights Bill in 1883. -
Reconstruction ends with the Rutherford B. Hayes presidency.
Both Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden claim they won the presidential election. The Republicans make a deal to stop Reconstruction in exchange for their candidate becoming president of the United States.