Reconstruction
Unit 9
1864-1896
1864-1896
Table of contents
1864 Wade Davis Bill
1870- 1871 The Enforcement Acts
1865 Thirteenth Amendment
1872 The Freedmen's Bureau Ends
Unit 9
1875 Civil Rights Act
1865 Freedmen's Bureau Founded
1865 Mississippi Black Codes
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes Elected
1865 Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Founded
1877 Withdraw from Louisiana
1866 Civil Rights Act
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
1867-1868 Reconstruction Acts
1868 Johnson Impeached
1868 Fourteenth Amendment
1870 Fifteenth Amendment
Timeline Tutorial
Click on each part of the slide to discover more about interacting with the timeline.
1787
The year the event took place, a more specific date if available and the event title will be located here.
Wikimedia Commons contributors. "Norstead - Living History Attraction - 11 September 2023." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norstead_-_Living_History_Attraction_-_11_September_2023.jpg.
September 17
The Constitution is Accepted
1864
July 4
Wade Davis Bill
First page of "A Bill to guaranty to certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government" (Wade-Davis bill as originally introduced), 1864 National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/Images/page_13/44a.html#:~:text=Wade%2DDavis%20Bill&text=If%20the%20Wade%2DDavis%20bill,had%20never%20assisted%20the%20Confederacy.
1865
Uncle Abe's valentine sent by Columbia; an envelope full of broken chains. United States New York Illinois, 1865. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, New York, 2. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/scsm000381/.
December 6
Thirteenth Amendment
1865
Taylor, James E., Artist. Glimpses at the Freedmen's Bureau. Issuing rations to the old and sick / from a sketch by our special artist, Jas. E. Taylor. Richmond Virginia, 1866. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2009633700/.
March 3
Freedmen's Bureau Founded
1865
November
Mississippi Black Codes
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Laws of the State of Mississippi. https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2012.46.10.
1865
December 24
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Founded
Bryant, Benjamin. Experience of a northern man among the Ku-Klux; or, The condition of the South. 1872. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/08005316/.
1866
April 9
The Civil Rights Act
Bingham & Dodd. Andrew Johnson, Prest. U.S. / printed in oil colors, by Bingham & Dodd, Hartford, Conn. United States, ca. 1866. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004671507/.
1867-1868
Baker, Joseph E., The "Rail Splitter" at Work Repairing the Union. , 1865. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661827/.
The Reconstruction Acts
1868
Feburary 24
Andrew Johnson Impeached
The New York herald. (New York, NY), May. 27 1868. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030313/1868-05-27/ed-1/.
1868
July 8
Kemble, E. W. , Artist. Congress - 14th Amendment 2nd section. United States, 1902. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004679121/.
Fourteenth Amendment
1870
Feburary 3
Fifteenth Amendment
Waud, Alfred R., Artist. "The first vote" 1867. November 16. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011648984/.
1870-1871
The Enforcement Acts
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Enforcement Act of 1871 Passed by the 42nd Congress, https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/historical_docs/hist_doc_ea1871a.html
1872
Waud, Alfred R. , Artist. The Freedmen's Bureau / Drawn by A.R. Waud. , 1868. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/92514996/.
June 30
The Freedmen's Bureau Ends
1875
March 1
E. Sachse & Co., Lithographer. The shackle broken - by the genius of freedom / lith. & print by E. Sachse & Co. , ca. 1874. [Baltimore: Pub. E. Sachse & Co., 5 N. Liberty St., Baltimore] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003690777/.
Civil Rights Act
1876
Washington, D.C.--the Electoral Commission holding a secret session by candle-light, on the Louisiana question, February 16th. Washington D.C. United States, 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/89712291/
December 7
Rutherford B. Hayes Elected
1877
Nast, Thomas. Compromise with the South - Dedicated to the Chicago Convention / Th. Nast. , 1864. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002723256/.
April 24
Withdraw from Louisiana
1896
May 8
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court of the United States. Plessy v. Ferguson. New York: Banks & Brothers Law Publishing, 1896. Law Library, Library of Congress (014.00.00)
Description Paragraph
Congress and the president squared off against one another as both houses approved four different Reconstruction Acts in 1867–1868. Johnson vetoed each one, and Congress enacted each one over the president’s vetoes. Among other changes, Congress divided the former Confederacy into five military districts governed by a military general. Former Confederate states were required to draft new constitutions, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and hold elections in which African American men could vote, with those elections supervised by the military.
Description Paragraph
In Pulaski, Tennessee, former Confederate soldiers formed a small “social club” that quickly morphed into a white supremacy group across the South dedicated to opposing Reconstruction policies. The KKK’s activities focused on intimidation, terror, and violence. They threatened, beat, and lynched Blacks, Republicans, and other supporters of Reconstruction. Members wore hooded robes to conceal their identities and create an aura of fear.
Photo Caption
The Enforcement Act of 1871 was passed by the 42nd Congress.
Photo Caption
This political cartoon feature President Lincoln receiving a valentine full of broken chains.
Photo Caption
A newspaper that supported President Johnson announces he will not be removed from office after impeachment.
Photo Caption
The first page of the "Wade-Davis" Bill.
Description Paragraph
Toward the end of the Civil War, the U.S. government needed a plan to bring the Confederate states back into the Union. President Abraham Lincoln proposed a plan in 1863, which required only 10 percent of Southern men to pledge loyalty to the U.S. and accept the freedom of formerly enslaved people. But some members of Congress thought this was too lenient and pushed for a stricter plan, known as the Wade-Davis Bill. This bill required 50 percent of Southern men to swear loyalty and promise they had never helped the Confederacy before the state could rejoin the Union. Although Congress passed this bill, Lincoln didn’t sign it before Congress recessed or went on break. This is known as a “pocket veto”. Lincoln wanted a more lenient approach to reunite the nation.
Description Paragraph
Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican from Ohio, and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat from New York, faced off in what would become a hotly contested election. When votes were counted, Tilden had won the popular vote by a narrow margin and secured 184 electoral votes- one vote short of the required 185 to win. Hayes had 165 electoral votes. However, twenty electoral votes from four states (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) were disputed due to alleged voter fraud, violence, and intimidation, particularly in southern states where African American voters faced threats. The election was resolved when a special election commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes. In return, the Republican Party fully ends military Reconstruction in the South, ensuring that states can practice discrimination and intimidation against Blacks, who have little protection by federal officials.
Photo Caption
A Union and Confederate soldier shake hands over a grave labeled "In Memory of Union Heroes who fell In A Useless War."
Description Paragraph
An alleged compromise between Republicans and Democrats following the election of 1876, known as the Compromise of 1877, resulted in the removal of federal troops in the South and the end of Reconstruction. Removing federal troops in 1877 allowed Southern states to govern without federal oversight. This change led to the rise of “Jim Crow” laws, which enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black voters through methods like literacy tests, poll taxes, and violence. While many Blacks held office in the South during the Reconstruction period, the disenfranchisement and intimidation led to white-dominated Southern governments. They quickly rolled back many of the rights that African Americans had gained during Reconstruction. The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of federal efforts to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, creating long-lasting effects on civil rights in the United States that would not be resolved until the successes of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
Description Paragraph
The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress January 31 but not ratified until December. It was required to be ratified by the former Confederate states before they could rejoin the Union. It was this amendment, that put an end to slavery in the entire Union.
Photo Caption
Contents include the legislation commonly known as "Black Codes," listed in the index as "An act to confer civil rights on freedmen, and for other purposes; to be entitled an act to regulate the relationship of master and apprentice as relates to free men, free negroes and mulattos; to amend the vagrant laws of the state."
Description Paragraph
President Grant initiated a legislative program to protect freed people from politically motivated violence, and Congress enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870 (also called the Ku Klux Klan Act), and the Enforcement Act of 1871 (Second Ku Klux Klan Act). Grant asked Congress for another law giving him more power against the KKK, to “effectually secure life, liberty, and property and the enforcement of law in all parts of the United States.” The result was the third Enforcement Act, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. This gave the president power to use armed forces to combat those who conspired to deny equal protection of the law and the ability to suspend habeas corpus in areas as needed. In South Carolina, Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine counties and disrupted the Klan network. The laws were quickly challenged in court. In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the Supreme Court ruled that neither the Fourteenth nor Fifteenth Amendments were intended to increase the power of the federal government to directly enforce the civil and political rights of citizens. State courts were back in charge of civil rights claims, and a narrow interpretation of Reconstruction Amendments resulted in a return to white supremacy rule in the South.
Primary Source
The Act that created the Freedmen's Bureau.
Photo Caption
South Carolina's Robert B. Elliott's speech in support of the Civil Rights Act, delivered before the House of Representatives, is memorialized.
Photo Caption
A man representing the Freedmen’s Bureau stands between white and Black Americans.
Description Paragraph
Homer Plessy, a multiracial man, bought a first-class train ticket in Louisiana and sat in a “whites-only” car. When he refused to move to the “Negro” car, he was arrested. Plessy’s lawyer argued that Louisiana’s segregation law was unconstitutional, violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which debated whether separating Black and white passengers was constitutional. In 1896, the Supreme Court decided against Plessy. The majority ruled that “separate but equal” accommodations were constitutional, claiming that segregation didn’t imply racial inferiority or violate the Constitution. Only one justice, John Marshall Harlan, disagreed, arguing that segregation violated the Constitution, which he argued was a “color blind” document. This decision legalized segregation and led to years of enforced separation between races in public spaces, known as Jim Crow laws, until the Civil Rights Movement decades later.
Photo Caption
This 1872 memoir by Benjamin B. Bryant describes the violence and intimidation he witnessed as a Northern Republican living in the South during Reconstruction.
Description Paragraph
As an attempt to further the rights for African Americans, this act guaranteed equal rights to African Americans in public spaces such as hotels, theaters, transportation, and also banned racial discrimination in jury service. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled the Act unconstitutional.
Primary Source
Section 2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 made it a misdemeanor to deprive another of their rights.
Primary Source
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867.
Description Paragraph
The Fourteenth Amendment provides for birthright citizenship on both the state level and the national level. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to implement due process and equal protection of the laws.
Description Paragraph
Across the South, cities and states adopted Black Codes to regulate the behavior of freedmen, beginning with Mississippi. For example, freedmen could acquire some personal property, but they might not be able to buy land. They could marry, but marrying whites was prohibited. Freedmen were required to petition the city’s mayor to receive a license to work, but the license could be revoked at any time. Changing jobs in some places was against the law, as was being unemployed for more than two weeks.
Primary Source
A member of the White League shakes hands with a member of the KKK over a crouching African American couple surrounded by scenes of death and destruction.
Photo Caption
Several differently dressed Black men show up to cast their votes in the first election open to them.
Description Paragraph
Due to decreasing political support, the lack of funding and resources, southern resistance and violence, and shifting priorities, the Freedmen’s Bureau ended. With its end, the struggle for Black Americans' rights remained unfinished and allowed for racial discrimination to remain strong in the South.
Description Paragraph
Growing tensions between President Johnson and Congress boiled over into impeachment, with the House of Representatives bringing charges against him. The President had clearly violated the new Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had been appointed by President Lincoln, without the consent of the Senate. Additionally, the House argued that Johnson had failed to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress. The Senate trial that began on March 30 was one vote shy of the required two-thirds majority needed to remove Johnson from office.
Photo Caption
President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act, but Congress overrode his veto.
Photo Caption
Meeting by candlelight in the middle of the night, the electoral commission discusses the Louisiana votes for president.
Description Paragraph
Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, providing citizenship and a guarantee of civil rights for Blacks. Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill because he believed it to be unconstitutional, arguing it infringed upon the authority of the states. Johnson believed federalism would be destroyed because a permanent federal military force would be necessary to enforce the law, allowing the federal government to gain excessive power at the expense of the states. Congress enacted the law over the president’s veto.
Description Paragraph
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution protects the right of African American men to vote by stating that states cannot deny the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Photo Caption
This cartoon criticizes Congress for ignoring the Fourteenth Amendment’s enforcement clause, showing Congress asleep.
Photo Caption
African Americans lined up to get rations of food.
Primary Source
Eight different scenes, most having to do with Black men voting, are illustrated.
Description Paragraph
The Freedmen’s Bureau, officially known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 to help formerly enslaved people transition to freedom after the Civil War. The Bureau’s mission was to ensure equal rights for African Americans in work, land ownership, contract negotiation, and education.
Photo Caption
The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Case resulted in strengthening the doctrine of "separate but equal".
Photo Caption
President Lincoln props up the globe while Vice President Johnson works to sew the country back together.
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Transcript
Reconstruction
Unit 9
1864-1896
1864-1896
Table of contents
1864 Wade Davis Bill
1870- 1871 The Enforcement Acts
1865 Thirteenth Amendment
1872 The Freedmen's Bureau Ends
Unit 9
1875 Civil Rights Act
1865 Freedmen's Bureau Founded
1865 Mississippi Black Codes
1876 Rutherford B. Hayes Elected
1865 Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Founded
1877 Withdraw from Louisiana
1866 Civil Rights Act
1896 Plessy v. Ferguson
1867-1868 Reconstruction Acts
1868 Johnson Impeached
1868 Fourteenth Amendment
1870 Fifteenth Amendment
Timeline Tutorial
Click on each part of the slide to discover more about interacting with the timeline.
1787
The year the event took place, a more specific date if available and the event title will be located here.
Wikimedia Commons contributors. "Norstead - Living History Attraction - 11 September 2023." Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Norstead_-_Living_History_Attraction_-_11_September_2023.jpg.
September 17
The Constitution is Accepted
1864
July 4
Wade Davis Bill
First page of "A Bill to guaranty to certain states whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government" (Wade-Davis bill as originally introduced), 1864 National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. House of Representatives https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/treasures_of_congress/Images/page_13/44a.html#:~:text=Wade%2DDavis%20Bill&text=If%20the%20Wade%2DDavis%20bill,had%20never%20assisted%20the%20Confederacy.
1865
Uncle Abe's valentine sent by Columbia; an envelope full of broken chains. United States New York Illinois, 1865. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, New York, 2. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/scsm000381/.
December 6
Thirteenth Amendment
1865
Taylor, James E., Artist. Glimpses at the Freedmen's Bureau. Issuing rations to the old and sick / from a sketch by our special artist, Jas. E. Taylor. Richmond Virginia, 1866. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2009633700/.
March 3
Freedmen's Bureau Founded
1865
November
Mississippi Black Codes
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Laws of the State of Mississippi. https://nmaahc.si.edu/object/nmaahc_2012.46.10.
1865
December 24
Ku Klux Klan (KKK) Founded
Bryant, Benjamin. Experience of a northern man among the Ku-Klux; or, The condition of the South. 1872. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/08005316/.
1866
April 9
The Civil Rights Act
Bingham & Dodd. Andrew Johnson, Prest. U.S. / printed in oil colors, by Bingham & Dodd, Hartford, Conn. United States, ca. 1866. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004671507/.
1867-1868
Baker, Joseph E., The "Rail Splitter" at Work Repairing the Union. , 1865. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008661827/.
The Reconstruction Acts
1868
Feburary 24
Andrew Johnson Impeached
The New York herald. (New York, NY), May. 27 1868. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030313/1868-05-27/ed-1/.
1868
July 8
Kemble, E. W. , Artist. Congress - 14th Amendment 2nd section. United States, 1902. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004679121/.
Fourteenth Amendment
1870
Feburary 3
Fifteenth Amendment
Waud, Alfred R., Artist. "The first vote" 1867. November 16. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2011648984/.
1870-1871
The Enforcement Acts
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow: Enforcement Act of 1871 Passed by the 42nd Congress, https://www.thirteen.org/wnet/jimcrow/historical_docs/hist_doc_ea1871a.html
1872
Waud, Alfred R. , Artist. The Freedmen's Bureau / Drawn by A.R. Waud. , 1868. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/92514996/.
June 30
The Freedmen's Bureau Ends
1875
March 1
E. Sachse & Co., Lithographer. The shackle broken - by the genius of freedom / lith. & print by E. Sachse & Co. , ca. 1874. [Baltimore: Pub. E. Sachse & Co., 5 N. Liberty St., Baltimore] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003690777/.
Civil Rights Act
1876
Washington, D.C.--the Electoral Commission holding a secret session by candle-light, on the Louisiana question, February 16th. Washington D.C. United States, 1877. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/89712291/
December 7
Rutherford B. Hayes Elected
1877
Nast, Thomas. Compromise with the South - Dedicated to the Chicago Convention / Th. Nast. , 1864. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002723256/.
April 24
Withdraw from Louisiana
1896
May 8
Plessy v. Ferguson
Supreme Court of the United States. Plessy v. Ferguson. New York: Banks & Brothers Law Publishing, 1896. Law Library, Library of Congress (014.00.00)
Description Paragraph
Congress and the president squared off against one another as both houses approved four different Reconstruction Acts in 1867–1868. Johnson vetoed each one, and Congress enacted each one over the president’s vetoes. Among other changes, Congress divided the former Confederacy into five military districts governed by a military general. Former Confederate states were required to draft new constitutions, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and hold elections in which African American men could vote, with those elections supervised by the military.
Description Paragraph
In Pulaski, Tennessee, former Confederate soldiers formed a small “social club” that quickly morphed into a white supremacy group across the South dedicated to opposing Reconstruction policies. The KKK’s activities focused on intimidation, terror, and violence. They threatened, beat, and lynched Blacks, Republicans, and other supporters of Reconstruction. Members wore hooded robes to conceal their identities and create an aura of fear.
Photo Caption
The Enforcement Act of 1871 was passed by the 42nd Congress.
Photo Caption
This political cartoon feature President Lincoln receiving a valentine full of broken chains.
Photo Caption
A newspaper that supported President Johnson announces he will not be removed from office after impeachment.
Photo Caption
The first page of the "Wade-Davis" Bill.
Description Paragraph
Toward the end of the Civil War, the U.S. government needed a plan to bring the Confederate states back into the Union. President Abraham Lincoln proposed a plan in 1863, which required only 10 percent of Southern men to pledge loyalty to the U.S. and accept the freedom of formerly enslaved people. But some members of Congress thought this was too lenient and pushed for a stricter plan, known as the Wade-Davis Bill. This bill required 50 percent of Southern men to swear loyalty and promise they had never helped the Confederacy before the state could rejoin the Union. Although Congress passed this bill, Lincoln didn’t sign it before Congress recessed or went on break. This is known as a “pocket veto”. Lincoln wanted a more lenient approach to reunite the nation.
Description Paragraph
Rutherford B. Hayes, a Republican from Ohio, and Samuel J. Tilden, a Democrat from New York, faced off in what would become a hotly contested election. When votes were counted, Tilden had won the popular vote by a narrow margin and secured 184 electoral votes- one vote short of the required 185 to win. Hayes had 165 electoral votes. However, twenty electoral votes from four states (Florida, Louisiana, Oregon, and South Carolina) were disputed due to alleged voter fraud, violence, and intimidation, particularly in southern states where African American voters faced threats. The election was resolved when a special election commission awarded the disputed votes to Hayes. In return, the Republican Party fully ends military Reconstruction in the South, ensuring that states can practice discrimination and intimidation against Blacks, who have little protection by federal officials.
Photo Caption
A Union and Confederate soldier shake hands over a grave labeled "In Memory of Union Heroes who fell In A Useless War."
Description Paragraph
An alleged compromise between Republicans and Democrats following the election of 1876, known as the Compromise of 1877, resulted in the removal of federal troops in the South and the end of Reconstruction. Removing federal troops in 1877 allowed Southern states to govern without federal oversight. This change led to the rise of “Jim Crow” laws, which enforced racial segregation and disenfranchised Black voters through methods like literacy tests, poll taxes, and violence. While many Blacks held office in the South during the Reconstruction period, the disenfranchisement and intimidation led to white-dominated Southern governments. They quickly rolled back many of the rights that African Americans had gained during Reconstruction. The Compromise of 1877 marked the end of federal efforts to protect the rights of African Americans in the South, creating long-lasting effects on civil rights in the United States that would not be resolved until the successes of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.
Description Paragraph
The Thirteenth Amendment was passed by Congress January 31 but not ratified until December. It was required to be ratified by the former Confederate states before they could rejoin the Union. It was this amendment, that put an end to slavery in the entire Union.
Photo Caption
Contents include the legislation commonly known as "Black Codes," listed in the index as "An act to confer civil rights on freedmen, and for other purposes; to be entitled an act to regulate the relationship of master and apprentice as relates to free men, free negroes and mulattos; to amend the vagrant laws of the state."
Description Paragraph
President Grant initiated a legislative program to protect freed people from politically motivated violence, and Congress enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870 (also called the Ku Klux Klan Act), and the Enforcement Act of 1871 (Second Ku Klux Klan Act). Grant asked Congress for another law giving him more power against the KKK, to “effectually secure life, liberty, and property and the enforcement of law in all parts of the United States.” The result was the third Enforcement Act, the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. This gave the president power to use armed forces to combat those who conspired to deny equal protection of the law and the ability to suspend habeas corpus in areas as needed. In South Carolina, Grant suspended habeas corpus in nine counties and disrupted the Klan network. The laws were quickly challenged in court. In the Slaughterhouse Cases (1873) and United States v. Cruikshank (1876), the Supreme Court ruled that neither the Fourteenth nor Fifteenth Amendments were intended to increase the power of the federal government to directly enforce the civil and political rights of citizens. State courts were back in charge of civil rights claims, and a narrow interpretation of Reconstruction Amendments resulted in a return to white supremacy rule in the South.
Primary Source
The Act that created the Freedmen's Bureau.
Photo Caption
South Carolina's Robert B. Elliott's speech in support of the Civil Rights Act, delivered before the House of Representatives, is memorialized.
Photo Caption
A man representing the Freedmen’s Bureau stands between white and Black Americans.
Description Paragraph
Homer Plessy, a multiracial man, bought a first-class train ticket in Louisiana and sat in a “whites-only” car. When he refused to move to the “Negro” car, he was arrested. Plessy’s lawyer argued that Louisiana’s segregation law was unconstitutional, violating the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which debated whether separating Black and white passengers was constitutional. In 1896, the Supreme Court decided against Plessy. The majority ruled that “separate but equal” accommodations were constitutional, claiming that segregation didn’t imply racial inferiority or violate the Constitution. Only one justice, John Marshall Harlan, disagreed, arguing that segregation violated the Constitution, which he argued was a “color blind” document. This decision legalized segregation and led to years of enforced separation between races in public spaces, known as Jim Crow laws, until the Civil Rights Movement decades later.
Photo Caption
This 1872 memoir by Benjamin B. Bryant describes the violence and intimidation he witnessed as a Northern Republican living in the South during Reconstruction.
Description Paragraph
As an attempt to further the rights for African Americans, this act guaranteed equal rights to African Americans in public spaces such as hotels, theaters, transportation, and also banned racial discrimination in jury service. In 1883, the Supreme Court ruled the Act unconstitutional.
Primary Source
Section 2 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 made it a misdemeanor to deprive another of their rights.
Primary Source
The Reconstruction Acts of 1867.
Description Paragraph
The Fourteenth Amendment provides for birthright citizenship on both the state level and the national level. In addition, the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to implement due process and equal protection of the laws.
Description Paragraph
Across the South, cities and states adopted Black Codes to regulate the behavior of freedmen, beginning with Mississippi. For example, freedmen could acquire some personal property, but they might not be able to buy land. They could marry, but marrying whites was prohibited. Freedmen were required to petition the city’s mayor to receive a license to work, but the license could be revoked at any time. Changing jobs in some places was against the law, as was being unemployed for more than two weeks.
Primary Source
A member of the White League shakes hands with a member of the KKK over a crouching African American couple surrounded by scenes of death and destruction.
Photo Caption
Several differently dressed Black men show up to cast their votes in the first election open to them.
Description Paragraph
Due to decreasing political support, the lack of funding and resources, southern resistance and violence, and shifting priorities, the Freedmen’s Bureau ended. With its end, the struggle for Black Americans' rights remained unfinished and allowed for racial discrimination to remain strong in the South.
Description Paragraph
Growing tensions between President Johnson and Congress boiled over into impeachment, with the House of Representatives bringing charges against him. The President had clearly violated the new Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who had been appointed by President Lincoln, without the consent of the Senate. Additionally, the House argued that Johnson had failed to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress. The Senate trial that began on March 30 was one vote shy of the required two-thirds majority needed to remove Johnson from office.
Photo Caption
President Andrew Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act, but Congress overrode his veto.
Photo Caption
Meeting by candlelight in the middle of the night, the electoral commission discusses the Louisiana votes for president.
Description Paragraph
Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866, providing citizenship and a guarantee of civil rights for Blacks. Andrew Johnson vetoed the bill because he believed it to be unconstitutional, arguing it infringed upon the authority of the states. Johnson believed federalism would be destroyed because a permanent federal military force would be necessary to enforce the law, allowing the federal government to gain excessive power at the expense of the states. Congress enacted the law over the president’s veto.
Description Paragraph
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution protects the right of African American men to vote by stating that states cannot deny the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Photo Caption
This cartoon criticizes Congress for ignoring the Fourteenth Amendment’s enforcement clause, showing Congress asleep.
Photo Caption
African Americans lined up to get rations of food.
Primary Source
Eight different scenes, most having to do with Black men voting, are illustrated.
Description Paragraph
The Freedmen’s Bureau, officially known as the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, was established in 1865 to help formerly enslaved people transition to freedom after the Civil War. The Bureau’s mission was to ensure equal rights for African Americans in work, land ownership, contract negotiation, and education.
Photo Caption
The Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Case resulted in strengthening the doctrine of "separate but equal".
Photo Caption
President Lincoln props up the globe while Vice President Johnson works to sew the country back together.