Reconstruction Timeline by

1861--The Civil War Begins

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:08:39 UTC

1861-1865--The "General Strike" Against Slavery

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:11:19 UTC

Around 500,000 enslaved people leave the plantations. Some form their own communities. Most go to the Union territory. Many join the Union army. Almost 200,000 Black people fight in the Union Army.

1863--June--Harriet Tubman Leads Combahee River Raid

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:15:58 UTC

Harriet Tubman becomes the first woman to plan and lead a combat operation in U.S. history. She goes behind enemy lines in South Carolina and frees hundreds of enslaved people.

1863--January--Emancipation Proclamation

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:20:07 UTC

This rule said that all enslaved people in the Confederate states were free. In effect, the purpose of the war becomes to end slavery. Enslaved people only actually went free when they freed themselves or when the Union Army arrived.

1865--Civil War Ends

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:29:11 UTC

The Confederate States surrender. The Union Army begins occupying the South. In June, the Union Army arrives in Galveston, Texas, ending the enslavement of the people there. June 19th is celebrated as "Juneteenth."

1865--Fall--Southern States Create Black Codes

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:35:16 UTC

Southern States enact laws called "the Black Codes" to re-establish white supremacy in the South.

1865--December--13th Amendment Ratified

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:36:56 UTC

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution makes slavery illegal in the United States, except as punishment for a crime.

1865--Spring--Freedman's Bureau Established

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:41:11 UTC

The U.S. government creates the Freedman's Bureau, an agency meant to help enslaved people transition to freedom by providing education, training, medical care, and more.

1865--January--"40 Acres and a Mule"

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:51:05 UTC

As he marches the Union Army through the South, General Sherman issues Special Field Order 15. This rule plans to give freedpeople 40 acre plots of land to farm, along with a mule. Because of changes later in the U.S. government, no land is given out.

1865--April--Abraham Lincoln is Assassinated

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:52:55 UTC

6 days after making a speech discussing the right to vote for Black soldiers, President Lincoln in murdered. Southern Democrat Andrew Johnson becomes president.

1868--July--14th Amendment Ratified

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 16:56:53 UTC

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States, and guarantees due process of law for all citizens.

1870--Winter--15th Amendment Ratified

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 19:23:08 UTC

The 15th Amendment to the Constitution allows Black men to vote.

1877--The End of Reconstruction

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 19:32:03 UTC

Republicans and Democrats make a deal. After a disputed election, Republicans get the presidency and promise Democrats to end Reconstruction, removing U.S. government soldiers from the South. Antiblack violence, segregation, and sharecropping go unchecked in the South and the U.S. generally.

1870--Winter--Black Presence in Congress

mvr550 — 2022-12-09 20:12:43 UTC

Hiram Revels of Mississippi becomes the first Black man in Congress. Over 600 Black men serve in state legislators during the Reconstruction period.

1865--Fall--"Colored Conventions"

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 16:13:05 UTC

Black Americans have mass meetings known as "Colored Conventions" where they strategize, plan, and make demands for how to achieve equality, the right to vote, and freedom.

1896--Plessy v Ferguson and Legal Segregation

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 16:52:40 UTC

A legal case before the Supreme Court makes racial segregation legal in the United States. This will not change until Brown v Board of Education, 1954.

1954--Brown v Board of Education

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 18:00:58 UTC

The Supreme Court case ends legal segregation in the United States.

1964--The Civil Rights Act

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 18:01:48 UTC

This law makes discrimination based on race and gender illegal.

1965--Voting Rights Act

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 18:02:33 UTC

This law protects the right to vote for all Black citizens after they had been systematically kept from voting in the South for decades.

2013-Present Day--Movement for Black Lives

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 21:48:07 UTC

In the 2010s, a series of police and extrajudicial murders of Black people (including Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Michael Brown, and George Floyd) spark a movement known as "Black Lives Matter." Uprisings continue through to the present day.

Late 1970s-Present Day--Mass Incarceration and the Prison Industrial Complex

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 21:51:06 UTC

In the late 1970s, the United States begins expanding and filling its prison system. At its peak, over 2 million people are in U.S. prisons and jails. The prison population is disproportionately Black.

1969--The Black Panther Party Begins Free Breakfast Program

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 21:57:37 UTC

The Black Panther Party for self defense forms in California, and chapters form all over the country. The Panthers advocate armed self defense for Black people, community care, and the end of the Vietnam war. They defend against police brutality, create free breakfast programs, health clinics, and education centers.

Late 60s-1980s--COINTELPRO

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 21:59:56 UTC

The United States government uses COINTELPRO (Counter-Intelligence Program) to create divisions in radical groups like the Black Panther Party and to kill Panther leaders such as Fred Hampton.

1968--Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 22:01:01 UTC

A white gunman murders Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee. Uprisings occur throughout the United States.

2007--U.S. Recession and Housing Crisis

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 22:24:48 UTC

After the housing market crashes in 2007/2008, Black Americans experience the largest drop in wealth. White Americans average 13x as much wealth as Black Americans.

1930s-Onward--Redlining

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 22:27:12 UTC

During a large part of the 20th century, discrimination in housing makes it much easier for white people to buy homes and build wealth.

1955--Murder of Emmett Till

mvr550 — 2022-12-10 22:31:53 UTC

Emmett Till, 14, is murdered by white men in the South after a white woman falsely accuses him of harassment. The funeral gains national attention when Till's mother chooses to keep his funeral casket open. This event is a major spark of movement for civil rights.

1910s-1970s The Great Migration

2023-01-31 01:27:53 UTC

For decades, millions of Black Americans move from the Southern U.S. to cities across the country in the North. They come in search of better jobs and freedom from Jim Crow violence and segregation. They form strong communities in these cities, while facing different forms of segregation and discrimination.

team member: jose, josue

2025-09-04 18:58:42 UTC

2025-09-04 19:07:08 UTC

In 1861 the Civil War Begins through 1896 and it was plessy vs ferguson.

2025-09-04 19:09:54 UTC

Through 1861-1865 around 500,000 people left and 200,000 of them joined the union army

2025-09-04 19:11:54 UTC

During 1863 all slaves were supposed to be free but people would still keep slaves until the union army came and freed them

2025-09-04 19:14:52 UTC

In 1863 Harriet Tubman freed hundreds of enslaved people

2025-09-04 19:17:16 UTC

In 1865 freed people got 40 acre plots of land to farm and along with a mule then changes caused no land to be given out anymore