1870s
1870–1879Zoom in — years
Key events
- March 2, 1877The Compromise of 1877 ends Reconstruction
Federal troops withdraw from the South, abandoning Black citizens to white-supremacist "Redeemer" governments.
- 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.
- April 13, 1873The Colfax Massacre
A white militia murders scores of Black freedmen in Louisiana, a turning point against Reconstruction.
- March 1, 1875The Civil Rights Act of 1875
A federal ban on racial discrimination in public accommodations — later gutted by the courts.
- July 8, 1876The Hamburg massacre
White paramilitaries murder Black militiamen in South Carolina, signaling Reconstruction's collapse.
- 1879The Exoduster migration
Tens of thousands of freedpeople flee the South for Kansas and the West.