Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation; Work begins on the first transcontinental railroad
1865Freedmen’s Bureau created
Confederate armies surrender, effectively ending the Civil War; President Lincoln assassinated
Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery, is ratified
General Grenville Dodge commands military campaign against Native American tribes on the Great Plains
Major race riots in Memphis and New Orleans; Southern states begin enacting Black Codes
1866Republicans win solid majorities in both Houses of Congress
1867First, Second, and Third Reconstruction Acts are passed over Johnson’s veto
1868Impeachment proceedings fail to remove President Johnson from office; Fourteenth Amendment ratified; Ulysses S. Grant elected president; Fourth Reconstruction Act passed
1869Transcontinental railroad completed; Tennessee is first state to replace bi-racial state government with white Democratic one
1870Hiram Revels becomes first African American Senator; Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution ratified, guaranteeing black male suffrage; Force Acts issued
1872Freedman’s Bureau abolished
1873Financial panic causes major economic depression
1874Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate
1875Civil Rights Act passed
1876Disputed Presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden
1877Northern troops withdraw from the South under Compromise of 1877
1899 Ella Gertrude Clanton Thomas elected president for Georgia Womens Suffrage Association
