Movement of resistance · 1865–1877
Reconstruction & Black Political Power
The brief era of Black voting, officeholding, and constitutional citizenship after the Civil War.
On the timeline
- January 16, 1865Special Field Order No. 15 — "40 acres"
Sherman sets aside coastal land for freed families — a promise soon revoked.
- March 3, 1865The Freedmen's Bureau
A federal agency to aid the formerly enslaved with food, schools, and labor contracts.
- April 9, 1866The Civil Rights Act of 1866
The first federal law to define citizenship and affirm equal rights regardless of race.
- July 9, 1868The 14th Amendment
Citizenship and equal protection are written into the Constitution.
- February 3, 1870The 15th Amendment
The vote is guaranteed regardless of race; Black men begin electing Black officials across the South.
- February 25, 1870Hiram Revels, first Black US Senator
Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African American in the US Senate during Reconstruction.
- December 12, 1870Joseph Rainey, first Black US Representative
Rainey of South Carolina becomes the first Black member of the US House.
- April 20, 1871The Ku Klux Klan Act
Federal law empowers the government to suppress Klan terror in the South.
- March 1, 1875The Civil Rights Act of 1875
A federal ban on racial discrimination in public accommodations — later gutted by the courts.