01 JAN 63 : By terms of the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION of 22 SEP 62, all slaves in areas still in a state of rebellion against the United States are declared free. While this does not free a single slave at the moment, each inch of ground gained henceforth by Union forces becomes free land.

08 DEC 63: Lincoln announces his plan of Reconstruction, called the 10% PLAN

1. Full pardons and restoration of property (except in slaves) to those Southerners who take an oath of loyalty to the United States AND of support for all existing laws and proclamations concerning slavery. High civil, diplomatic, and military Confederate officials are excluded from pardon.

2. When 10% of the 1860 electorate of any state has taken the oath of loyalty, they and all others who subsequently take the oath may organize a new state government, which the President will recognize.

3. President encourages, but does not require, the reconstructed states to provide for freedom and other benefits for blacks

4. Arkansas and Louisiana fulfill these conditions in 1864, but Congres refuses to seat their elected represtentatives

02 JUL 64: THE WADE-DAVIS BILL

1. Passed by Congress, dissatisfied with Lincoln's plan of reconstruction

2. Required that 50% of 1860 electorate take oath of loyalty before new state government could be organized in any seceeded state

3. Sworn loyalists could elect members to a constitutional convention, which would write a new constitution

4. Elections held under the new constitution would produce a state government

5. Only those who took the IRONCLAD OATH, swearing present, future and continuous past loyalty, could vote for or serve as delegates to the constitutional convention or officers in the new governments

6. Federal courts to safeguard liberty of the freedmen

7. Note that here, as in Lincoln's plan, the franchise was restricted to the all-white 1860 electorate

8. Pocket vetoed by Lincoln, who said that any state could still use this procedure if it chose.

03 MAR 65: THE FREEDMEN'S BUREAU ACT

1. Created Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands

2. Provided for leasing of forty acres of abandoned or confiscated land to Southern freedmen or Unionists

3. Provided schools for freedmen

4. Relief agency for the disadvantaged of both races

5. Drafted and enforced labor contracts

29 MAY 65: New President Andrew Johnson announces his plan of Reconstruction

1. Similar to Lincoln's, save that, in addition to Lincolns categories of exclusion, he adds his own: all Southerners holding $20,000 or more in property

2. Amnesty could be granted to excluded Southerners who applied for pardon and took the oath of allegiance

3. Provisional governments organized by presidentially-appointed provisional governors

4. Provisional governors to arrange for conventions to write new state constitutions and abolish slavery

5. As with Lincoln's plan, delegates elected under this scheme are not seated by Congress

24 NOV 65: Mississippi passes the first BLACK CODE. Other Southern states soon follow suit

1. Note that the gvernments passing these codes are those established under the Johnson plan of Reconstruction

2. Codes provide basic civil rights for blacks

3. Codes severely restrict the liberties of blacks

a. Require labor contracts

b. Prohibit blacks from owning property

c. Deny many basic civil rights

4. Overall effect is to bind freedmen to the land they once worked as slaves and to keep the black race in a subordinate position

18 DEC 65: The THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT becomes part of the Constitution

09 APR 66: CIVIL RIGHTS ACT passed over Johnson's veto

1. Grants full US Citizenship to "all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed"

2. Designed to nullify the Black Codes and the Dred Scott decision

3. Permitted federal courst to supersede state courts where states discriminated by race

4. Provided for equal civil rights for persons of all races

5. Did not apply to state segregation laws

MAY 66: Race Riot in Memphis

16 JUL 66: Congresses passes the Freedmen's Bureau Extension bill over Johnson's veto

1. Continues existence and activities of the Freedmen's Bureau

2. Provides for Freedmen's Courts to function as military tribunals to protect freedmen

30 JUL 66: Race Riot in New Orleans

02 MAR 67: Congress passes the FIRST RECONSTRUCTION ACT over Johnson's veto

1. Declared existing civil governments in ex-Confederate states (except Tennessee) to be provisional only

2. Divided ex-Confederacy into five military districts. Military occupation forces in each district to supervise and, if necessaary, override civil government

3. After any state has called a constitutional convention, has adopted a new constitution which includes black suffrage, and has ratified the Fourteenth Amendment, that state's representatives will be seated in Congress

4. Persons disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment barred from voting for constitutional convention delegates or on ratification of the new constitutions

02 MAR 67: TENURE OF OFFICE ACT

02 MAR 67: Army Appropriations Act

23 MAR 67: SECOND RECONSTRUCTION ACT

Required generals in command of military distrcts to register eligible voters and hold elections for delegates to a constitutional convention

19 JUL 67: THIRD RECONSTRUCTION ACT

1. Declared Southern provisional governments inferior to military governments

2. Confirmed power of commanders to remove state officials from office

3. Authorized registration boards to reject a voter's oath of loyalty if they had reason to believe it was false

24 FEB 68: House impeaches Johnson

MAY 68: Senate fails to convict Johnson

28 JUL 68: Ratification of the FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT

1. Defined American citizenship, including blacks

2. Protected rights of citizens against infringement by state governments

3. Repealed "three-fifths clause," thus increasing congressional representation of the Southern states by counting blacks as full persons

26 FEB 69: The FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT passes Congress. When it is not immediately ratified in the North, Congress passes a new requirement that those states still not readmitted (Virginia, Mississippi, Texas) ratify it before their delegates to Congress could be seated

30 MAR 70: Fifteenth Amendment, upon Georgia's ratification, becomes part of the U.S. Constitution

31 MAY 1870: First Enforcement Act

1. Makes interference wih voting rights a felony

2. Bans any attempts to deprive a person or persons of civil or political rights

3. Gives federal courts original jurisdiction in cases arising under this law

28 FEB 71: Second Enforcement Act

Provides for federal supervisioin of voting and registration

20 APR 71: Third Enforcement Act (Ku Klux Klan Act)

1. Strengthens previous acts

2. Authorizes president to use army to enforce previous acts and protect individual civil and political rights

3. Authorizes suspension of habeas corpus wherever he might proclaim the existence of a state of insurrection

4. Authorizeds exclusion of suspected Klansmen from juries

FEB 1875: THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1875

Bans racial discrimination in all forms of transportation and public accomodation anywhere in the United States