| 1863 | Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction |
| 1865 | Ku Klux Klan formed |
| Freedmen's Bureau established |
| Thirteenth Amendment passed |
| Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson becomes president |
| 1866 | Freedmen's Bureau and Civil Rights Act extended over Johnson's presidential veto |
| Fourteenth Amendment passed |
| 1867 | Military Reconstruction Acts |
| Command of the Army and Tenure of Office Acts passed |
| 1868 | Andrew Johnson impeached |
| 1869 | Fifteenth Amendment passed |
| Women's suffrage movement splits over support of Fifteenth Amendment |
| 1870 | 250,000 blacks attend schools established by the Freedmen's Bureau |
| Civilian rule returns to the South |
| 1870–1872 | Congress takes steps to curb Ku Klux Klan violence in the South |
| 1873 | Financial panic sparks depression |
| 1873–1883 | Supreme Court limits rights of African Americans |
| 1875 | Civil Rights Act passed |
| 1877 | Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president |
| Reconstruction ends |
| 1879 | Black Exodusters migrate from South to Kansas |