AFRICAN AMERICAN FREEDOM MOVEMENT TIMIELINE

1865
Ø Congress established the Freedmen’s Bureau which protected the rights of newly emancipated blacks.
Ø The Ku Klux Klan was formed in Tennessee, by ex confederates.
Ø Slavery in the US was ended when 250,000 slaves in Texas finally receive news that Civil War had ended two months earlier.
Ø Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified which prohibited slavery.
1865-66
Ø Black codes were passed by Southern states, which drastically restricted the rights of newly freed slaves
1867
Ø A series of Reconstruction acts were passed. These carved the former Confederacy into five military districts and gave civil rights to freed slaves.
1868
Ø Fourteenth Amendment was ratified to the Constitution which defined citizenship. Individuals born or naturalized in the US are American citizens, including those born as slaves.
1869
Ø Howard University’s law school formed, which made it the first black law school.
1870
Ø Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified. This gave blacks the right to vote.
Ø Hiram Revels from Mississippi was elected the country’s first African American senator.
1877
Ø Reconstruction ended in the South. Federal attempted to provide basic civil basic rights for African Americans which quickly eroded.
1879
Ø Black Exodus took place. Or when tens of thousands of African Americans migrated to Kansas from the southern states.
1881
Ø First college for black women founded named Spelman College.
Ø Booker T. Washington founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. This school was one of the lading schools for teaching African Americans.
1896
Ø Plessy v. Ferguson case where the doctrine, “separate but equal” was held. The Supreme Court decision held that racial segregation is constitutional. This paved the way for repressive Jim Crow laws in the south.
1905
Ø W.E.B DuBois founded the Niagara movement. This movement took a more radical approach and called for immediate equality in ALL areas of American life.
1909
Ø W.E.B. DuBois found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New York. For the next half century it was the country’s most influential African-American civil rights organization. They dedicated themselves to politic equality and social justice.
1914
Ø Marcus Garvey established the Universal Negro Improvement Association. This was an influential black nationalist organization that was made to promote the spirit of race pride and create a sense of worldwide unity among African Americans.