CHRONOLOGY

1863

  • Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction pardons most rebels.

    • 1864

  • Lincoln refuses to sign Wade-Davis bill.

    • 1865

  • Freedmen’s Bureau established.

  • Lincoln assassinated; Andrew Johnson becomes president.

  • First black codes enacted.

  • Thirteenth Amendment becomes part of Constitution.

    • 1866

  • Congress approves Fourteenth Amendment.

  • Civil Rights Act passes.

  • American Equal Rights Association founded.

  • Ku Klux Klan founded.

    • 1867

  • Military Reconstruction Act passes.

  • Tenure of Office Act passes.

    • 1868

  • Impeachment trial of President Johnson held.

  • Ulysses S. Grant elected president.

    • 1869

  • Congress approves Fifteenth Amendment.

    • 1871

  • Ku Klux Klan Act passes.

    • 1872

  • Liberal Party formed.

  • President Grant reelected.

    • 1873

  • Economic depression sets in.

  • Slaughterhouse cases decided.

  • Colfax massacre kills more than eighty blacks.

    • 1874

  • Democrats win majority in House of Representatives.

    • 1875

  • Civil Rights Act passes.

    • 1876

  • United States v. Cruikshank decided.

    • 1877

  • Rutherford B. Hayes becomes president; Reconstruction era ends.