January 1865 16th U. S. General William T. Sherman's Field Order No. 15 sets aside land
in coastal South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for the use of freed people, who may
claim "possessory title" to 40-acre plots with the option to purchase the land
31st U. S. Congress approves a constitutional amendment (Thirteenth)
abolishing slavery and sends the measure to the states for ratification
February 1865 1st U. S. General William T. Sherman's army begins its march through the
Carolinas
March 1865 3rd U. S. Congress establishes the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and
Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau)
13th C. S. Congress authorizes the recruitment of black soldiers
for service in the Confederate army
April 1865 9th C. S. General Robert E. Lee surrenders his army at Appomattox
Court House, Virginia
11th Abraham Lincoln's last speech, in which he first publicly endorsed
limited black suffrage
14th Abraham Lincoln assassinated
15th Andrew Johnson sworn in as President of the United States
May 1865 1st U. S. Army numbers 1 million men
26th C. S. General Edmund Kirby Smith surrenders the trans-Mississippi
region, bringing military conflict to an end
29th Andrew Johnson issues his Amnesty Proclamation
June 1865 Southern white men excepted from the general amnesty provisions begin
appealing to President Johnson for an individual pardon
August 1865 Constitutional conventions meet in the Southern states to foreswear secession,
repudiate the Confederate debt, and ratify the (13th) amendment ending slavery, in accord with
the instructions of President Johnson
September 1865 Constitutional conventions meet in the Southern states to foreswear secession,
repudiate the Confederate debt, and ratify the (13th) amendment ending slavery, in accord with
the instructions of President Johnson
6th Representative Thaddeus Stevens explains his plan for confiscating
Southern lands in a speech at Lancaster, Pennsylvania
October 1865 Southern states hold local, state, and congressional elections in anticipation of full
restoration within the United States
November 1865 Southern states hold local, state, and congressional elections in anticipation of full
restoration within the United States
20th Mississippi Governor Benjamin Humphreys instructs the state legislature
25th Mississippi's first "Black Codes" issued
December 1865 4th Senators and Representatives from Southern states denied their seats
in the 39th Congress
4th U. S. Senate and House form the Joint Committee on Reconstruction
6th Constitutional amendment (Thirteenth) abolishing slavery ratified
25th Whites' fears of a "Christmas Day Insurrection" by ex-slaves
prove unfounded
January 1866 1st By this date, over 7,000 Southerners denied amnesty under the $20,000
property clause have received individual pardons from President Johnson
February 1866 19th President Johnson vetoes the bill renewing the Freedmen's Bureau
March 1866 27th President Johnson vetoes the Civil Rights Bill
April 1866 9th Congress passes Civil Rights Act and Freedmen's Bureau renewal over
President Johnson's veto
16th In Norfolk, Virginia, freedmen parading to celebrate the passage of
the Civil Rights Act are attacked by whites, touching off a race riot that leaves 5 dead
May 1866 1-4th A race riot in Memphis results in 46 blacks and 2 whites dead, 70-80 persons wounded,
5 black women raped, and more than $130,000 in property damage (4 black churches, 12 black
schools, and 91 black houses and cabins burned)
June 1866 Ku Klux Klan founded as a social club in Pulaski, Tennessee
13th Congress approves a constitutional amendment (Fourteenth) outlining the rights
of U. S. citizens and sends the measure to the states for ratification
25th Sen. James Doolittle (R-Wisc.) calls for a National Union Convention to draft
a platform and send candidates into the 1866 elections
July 1866 30th A New Orleans race riot leaves 34 blacks and 4 whites dead, and
another 150 (mostly African Americans) injured, after attacks on a black suffrage meeting
August 1866 14th -18th National Union Convention in Philadelphia fails to create a
new party, but urges election of congressmen who will support President Johnson's conservative policies
28th Andrew Johnson departs on his "swing around the circle"
of speaking engagements in the Northeast and Midwest
September 1866 3rd Andrew Johnson speaks in Cleveland, Ohio
8th Andrew Johnson speaks in St. Louis, Missouri
15th Andrew Johnson returns to Washington, D.C.
October 1866 1st U. S. Army reduced to only 38,000 men, most of them guarding the
national borders and Indian reservations
November 1866 Andrew Johnson and his supporters suffer repudiation at the polls, as election results
reveal Republicans will muster a greater than two-thirds majority in the next Congress
March 1867 2nd President Johnson vetoes the Tenure of Office Bill; Congress promptly
over-rides his veto
2nd President Johnson vetoes the First Reconstruction Bill; Congress promptly
over-rides his veto -- dividing the South into five military disticts, declaring existing
governments provisional, disfranchising many former Confederates, and subjecting state law and
order to the authority of military commanders until state constitutional conventions provide
suffrage to black adult males and ratify the Fourteenth Amendment -- beginning what has been
called "Military Reconstruction", or "Congressional Reconstruction"
23rd The Second Reconstruction Act specifically instructs military
commanders to register voters and call for constitutional conventions, barring from
participation those who held any government office or position before the war and then
gave aid or support to the rebellion
April 1867 Re-organization of the Ku Klux Klan in Nashville, Tennessee, as a more political organization,
directly opposed to Republican leadership and black equality
9th Senate approves purchase of Alaska from Russia
May 1867 Nathan Bedford Forrest inducted into the Ku Klux Klan and elected Grand Wizard of the
organization shortly thereafter
June 1867 5th Ku Klux Klan holds its first anniversary parade in Pulaski, Tennessee
July 1867 19th Third Reconstruction Act specifically authorizes military
commanders to remove any state or local official impairing the reconstruction process
August 1867 2nd Tennessee holds the South's first statewide elections with black voters,
selecting the governor, all the state's congressional seats, and almost all of its state legislature
from the Republican party
12th President Johnson suspends Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War
October 1867 Military authorities complete voter registration in the ten Southern states controlled
under the Reconstruction Acts
November 1867 Fall elections reveal diminished Republican strength in every Northern state,
influencing some party members to strike a less radical pose and convincing others of the
need to control the Southern states and return them (and their votes) to the Union before
the next year's presidential election
December 1867 In middle Tennessee, the first reports of Ku Klux Klan nightriding to intimidate blacks
February 1868 24th Andrew Johnson impeached by the House of Representatives
March 1868 11th Fourth Reconstruction Act proclaims that elections to ratify
new state constitutions will be decided by a majority of the votes cast in the contest,
not a majority of those registered to vote
May 1868 26th Andrew Johnson acquitted by the Senate
June 1868 Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina
re-admitted to the Union by Congressional enactments
July 1868 4th Tennessee Klansmen organize simultaneous demonstrations of
their strength in parades and confrontations throughout the state
9th Constitutional amendment (Fourteenth) protecting citizens'
rights ratified
27th Tennessee Gov. Brownlow (R) calls a special session of the
state legislature to punish Ku Klux Klan activity, demanding "these organized bands
of assassins and robbers be declared outlaws by special legislation, and punished with death
wherever found"
August 1868 28th In a newspaper interview, Klan leader Nathan Bedford Forrest
claims the organization's membership of 550,000 across the South and more than 40,000 in
Tennessee can be mobilized in 5 days; Forrest also disclaims racial motivations,
remarking "I have no powder to burn killing negroes. I intend to kill the
radicals. . . . There is not a radical leader in [Memphis] but is a marked man, and
if trouble should break out, none of them would be left alive"
September 1868 10th Tennessee's new anti-Klan law goes into effect, providing
penalties of a fine of up to $500 and 5 years in the penitentiary for: anyone belonging
to, supporting, or encouraging any secret organization which "prowled" by night
or day, with or without disguise, "for the purpose of disturbing the peace, or alarming
the peaceable citizens" of the state; those advising resistance to the law; any person
threatening or intimidating a voter
10th Tennessee's new militia law authorizes the governor to send
the state guard into any county where at least 10 "Union men" pledge that the
law could not be enforced or citizens protected without military assistance
11th A group of Tennessee legislators meet with President Johnson
to assure him that the state's new militia law is intended to be used only as a last
resort, and in case federal troops are unavailable
16th Tennessee's Gov. Brownlow issues a call for the formation of
militia companies and their assembly in Nashville
November 1868 3rd U. S. Grant elected president with 55 percent of the popular vote,
carrying all the Northern states Lincoln had in 1864, with the exception of Oregon and
New York (in the latter state the Democratic margin was only 1 percent of the total vote)
February 1869 26th Congress approves a constitutional amendment (Fifteenth)
providing that "race, color, or previous condition of servitude" not be used to
bar U. S. citizens from voting, and sends the measure to the states for ratification
March 1869 4th Ulysses S. Grant (R) inaugurated President
February 1870 3rd Constitutional amendment (15th) protecting voting rights ratified
May 1870 31st First Enforcement Act signed by U. S. Grant to protect black
voting rights in the South
April 1871 20th Ku Klux Klan Act becomes law, allowing President Grant to
suspend habeus corpus to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments
October 1871 12th President Grant orders the Ku Klux Klan in South Carolina to
disperse and surrender arms
17th President Grant suspends the writ of habeus corpus in
nine South Carolina counties to retaliate against KKK terrorism, and later sends in federal
troops to augment the anti-Klan effort
May 1872 22nd Amnesty Act restores full civil rights to all white
Southerners except a few former leaders of the Confederacy
November 1872 5th Ulysses S. Grant (R) re-elected President
September 1873 18th Failure of the Jay Cooke & Company bank triggers
the Panic of 1873
January 1875 14th Specie Resumption Act stabilizes currency (and commits
Republicans to a "hard-money" policy) by redeeming Greenbacks with gold coin
26th Andrew Johnson (D) elected to the U. S. Senate from Tennessee
March 1875 1st Civil Rights Act of 1875 outlaws racial segregation in
transportation and public accommodations and prevents the exclusion of blacks from
jury service (until the Supreme Court rules the law unconstitutional in 1883)
July 1875 31st Andrew Johnson dies
November 1876 8th Voting in presidential election pits Samuel J. Tilden (D)
against Rutherford B. Hayes (R)
9th With the 21 electoral votes of four states contested due
to allegations of voting fraud and violence, neither Tilden (184) nor Hayes (165) can
claim certain victory
January 1877 24th A fifteen-member electoral commission is named by Congress
to resolve the disputed presidential election
February 1877 16th Electoral Commission awards Louisiana's electoral votes
to Hayes, convincing Southern Democrats of the need to negotiate with the likely next
president
March 1877 4th Rutherford B. Hayes inaugurated President
15thThe Nation reports that "the great body of the
Republican party is . . . opposed to the continuance at the South of the policy of
military interference and coercion as pursued by General Grant."
April 1877 15th Claiming that "the people will not now sustain the
policy of upholding a State Government against a rival by the use of the forces of the
United States," President Hayes orders U. S. troops guarding Republican officials
in Columbia, South Carolina, and New Orleans, Louisiana, to return to their barracks
August 1890 Mississippi convention drafts a new state constitution setting up numerous bars to
suffrage (requiring registration at least four months before election, residency in the
state for at least two years before election, residency in the election district for at
least one year before election, payment of a $2 annual poll tax and all other taxes,
no convictions for a specified list of major and minor crimes, and a literacy test which
might be tempered by an understanding clause), but without mentioning race as a disqualifying
factor
May 1896 18th U. S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Plessy v.
Ferguson
April 1898 25th U. S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Williams
v. Mississippi