Historic African American Civil Rights Timeline: Civil War and Aftermath
May 16-18, 1860
Republican Party holds its nominating convention in Chicago. It nominates Abraham Lincoln as its presidential candidate. The Party platform opposes the future expansion of slavery into the new western territories.[1]
November 6, 1860
Abraham Lincoln is elected the Sixteenth President of the United States, Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President. They are elected from the Republican Party. They receive 1,866,452 votes and win in 17 of 33 states. Lincoln is elected President by a minority of only 40% of the popular vote.[2]
December 4, 1860
President James Buchanan gives report on the State of the Union. About the abolition of slavery, he states, “The long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern states has at length produced its natural effects.” He counsels against secession by declaring “The election of any one of our fellow-citizens to the office of President does not of itself afford just cause for dissolving the Union.”[3]
December 10, 1860
President-Elect Lincoln writes, “Let there be no compromise on the question of extending slavery. If there be, all our labor is lost, and, ere long, must be done again… The tug has to come & better now, than any time hereafter.”[4]
December 22, 1860
Lincoln writes to Alexander H. Stephens, the future vice-president of the Confederacy: “You think slavery is right and ought to be extended; while we think it is wrong and ought to be restricted. That I suppose is the rub. It certainly is the only substantial difference between us.”[5]
1861
A slave girl, Harriet Jacobs, publishes influential slave narrative, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.
January 12, 1861
An amendment protecting slavery is adopted in the Congress. It fails, however, to be ratified by the states. Senator Seward of New York says, in speech before the Senate, “The alarm is appalling; for the Union is not more the body than liberty is the soul of the nation… A continuance…”[6]
February 1, 1861
The state of Texas votes in the capital in Austin, 166 to 7, to leave the Union.[7]
President elect Lincoln writes to Secretary of State designate Seward. He refuses to compromise on the extension of slavery into the territories: “I say now, however, as I have all the while said, that on the territorial question---that is, the question of extending slavery under the national auspices,---I am inflexible. I am for no compromise which assists or permits the extension of the institution on soil owned by the nation. And any trick by which the nation is to acquire territory, and then allow some local authority to spread slavery over it, is as obnoxious as any other. / I take it that to effect some such result as this, and to put us again on the high-road to a slave empire is the object of all these proposed compromises. I am against it.”[8]
February 4-9, 1861
Seven of the southern states that seceded meet in Montgomery, Alabama, and adopt provisional confederate constitution on February 9. They elect Senator Jefferson Davis as provisional president.[9]
February 18, 1861
Jefferson Davis describes slavery as “necessary to self-preservation” in his inaugural address as President of the Confederacy.[10]
March 1861
The vice president of the Confederacy, Alexander Stephens, states that his government “rested upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is a natural and normal condition… our new Government, is the first in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”
March 2, 1861
The United States Congress passes a proposed constitutional amendment that the U.S. government would not “abolish or interfere…with the domestic institutions” of the states. This amendment is not ratified.[11]
March 4, 1861
Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated, in Washington City, as President of the United States. He states, in his inaugural address, “I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. …It follows from these views that no State, upon its own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union,--that resolves and ordnances to that effect are legally void;… I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and, to the extent of my ability, I shall take care,… that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. … In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. … One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. … I have no purpose… to interfere with the institution of slavery… In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ it.”[12]
April 12, 1861
Start of the Civil War in the United States. Confederate Army begins the shelling of the U.S. Army garrison at Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
April 15, 1861
Lincoln calls for 75,000 troops to enlist for three months. Black men who seek to volunteer for the Union Army are turned back.[13]
April 17, 1861
General Benjamin F. Butler is replaced as commander of the Union Department of Virginia, headquartered at Fortress Monroe.[14]
May 22, 1861
Union General Benjamin F. Butler assumes command of Fortress Monroe on the James River in Virginia, near Norfolk.[15]
May 23, 1861
Three enslaved individuals escape to Fortress Monroe. Butler gives them sanctuary and refuses to return them to their owners. He refuses to abide by the Federal Fugitive Slave Act. Butler asserts that it did not apply because it “did not affect a foreign country, which Virginia claimed to be.”[16]
Virginia votes three to one to approve secession from the Union.[17]
May 24, 1861
Union General Benjamin F. Butler declares fugitive slaves to be “contraband of war.” Fugitive slaves who escape to Fort Monroe, Virginia, are put to work for the Union.[18]
Federal troops enter and occupy Alexandria, Virginia.[19]
May 27, 1861
Forty-seven escaped slaves arrive at Fortress Monroe. They call it “Freedom Fort.” General Butler puts them to work. He requests a decision from Washington regarding his actions. Lincoln approves of General Butler’s policy, calling it “Butler’s fugitive slave law.”[20]
June 4, 1861
Southern newspapers recommend that slaves be utilized in Confederate fortification, in lieu of state volunteer forces.[21]
July 22, 1861
The Union is shocked over its defeat at Bull Run. Major General George B. McClellan is given command of the Army.[22]
The United States Senate declares that the war was being fought “to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union,” and that “this war is not waged… for any purpose… of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions… [of the] southern states.” Congress thus declares that the principle war aim is to preserve the Union. Lincoln supports the resolution. It passes the House 117 to 2, and the Senate, on July 25, 30 to July 23, 1864
The Louisiana State Constitutional Convention adopts measure that will abolish slavery in the state.[23]
July 30, 1861
More than 850 enslaved individual escape to Fortress Monroe.[24]
General Benjamin Butler seeks to declare escaped slaves freed. He writes to Secretary of War Cameron, “In a loyal State I would put down a servile insurrection. In a state of rebellion I would confiscate that which was used to oppose my arms, and take all that property, which constituted the wealth of that State, and furnished the means by which the war is prosecuted, besides being the cause of the war; and if, in so doing, it should be objected that human beings were brought to the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, such objection might not require much consideration.”[25]
August 1861
Daniel R. Goodloe, an abolitionist and correspondent for the New York Times, writes Emancipation and the War: Compensation Essential to Peace and Civilization.[26]
August 6, 1861
The U.S. Congress passes the First Confiscation Act. This act authorizes the freeing of slaves in areas of Union Army occupation and where slaves have been employed to support the Confederate military.[27]
August 8, 1861
Secretary of War Simeon Cameron writes General Butler regarding federal policy toward returning slaves who have entered Union lines. Butler determines that escaped slaves from Confederate states would not be returned.[28]
August 16, 1861
Lincoln declares that the people of the Confederate states “are in a state of insurrection against the United States, and that all commercial intercourse” between Union and Confederates states is illegal.[29]
August 30, 1861
Major General John C. Frémont invokes martial law within his military command in Missouri. Further, he issues a proclamation that frees slaves within his military jurisdiction. He confiscates the property of “those who shall take up arms against the United States” and declares that “their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men.” Northern abolitionists support the order. He has no authorization to issue these orders. On September 11, Lincoln overrules his decisions. Frémont refuses to comply, and is ordered by the President to nullify his orders. Frémont is then reassigned.[30]
September 2, 1861
President Lincoln requests that General Frémont “modify” his emancipation proclamation of August 30, 1861. Lincoln declares it “will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn them against us—perhaps ruin our rather fair prospects for Kentucky.”[31] Lincoln is fearful of losing Kentucky to the Confederacy.
September 10, 1861
Mrs. John C. Frémont meets with President Lincoln in order to persuade him to support General Frémont’s emancipation and confiscation proclamation of August 30.[32]
September 17, 1861
An old friend of Lincoln, Orville H. Browning, writes to the President regarding his approval of General John C. Frémont’s proclamation freeing enslaved individuals in his jurisdiction in Missouri. He writes that the proclamation had “the unqualified approval of every true friend of the Government … I do not know of an exception.”[33]
September 22, 1861
President Lincoln replies to Orville H. Browning letter of September 17, 1861. Lincoln explains his lack of support for General Frémont’s action regarding freeing of enslaved individuals in his department. Lincoln writes, “Yours of the 17th is just received; and coming from you, I confess it astonishes me. That you should object to my adhering to a law, which you had assisted in making, and presenting to me, less than a month before, is odd enough. But this is a very small part. Genl. Fremont's proclamation, as to confiscation of property, and the liberation of slaves, is purely political, and not within the range of military law, or necessity.”[34] Lincoln further explains that to support Frémont’s order would jeopardize Kentucky and Missouri loyalty to the Union. He states: “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. Kentucky gone, we can not hold Missouri, nor, as I think, Maryland. These all against us, and the job on our hands is too large for us. We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of this capitol.”[35]
September 23, 1861
John L. Scripps, a Lincoln biographer, writes the President, “‘This nation cannot endure part slave and part free.’ … To you sir has been accorded a higher privilege than was ever before vouchsafed to man. The success of free institutions rests with you. The destiny not alone of four millions of enslaved men and women, but of the great American people … is committed to your keeping. You must either make yourself the great central figure of our American history for all time to come, or your name will go down to posterity as one who … proved himself unequal to the grand trust.”[36]
September 25, 1861
Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Wells, authorizes the enlistment of Black slaves into the U.S. Navy.
October 1, 1861
Senator Charles Sumner declares his support for emancipation of enslaved individuals at a state Republican convention.[37]
October 14, 1861
To prevent subversion of the Union cause, President Lincoln authorizes General Winfield Scott to suspend the right of writ of habeas corpus between Bangor, Maine, and Washington, DC.[38]
November 1861
President Lincoln proposes plan for gradual, compensated emancipation of slaves in Delaware, which would be supported by the federal government. Lincoln drafts two bills to be entered into the state legislature. The bills, however, are not introduced. Slavery remains in Delaware until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment in December 1865.[39]
November 2, 1861
Major General John C. Frémont is removed from his command of the Western Department. Major General Hunter is placed in temporary command.[40]
November 6, 1861
Jefferson Davis is elected without opposition as President of the Confederate States. Members of the Confederate Congress are also selected.[41]
November 15, 1861
Historian George Bancroft writes President Lincoln that “Divine Providence” caused the war to “root out social slavery.” Lincoln writes back that it “does not escape my attention, and with which I must deal in all due caution, and with the best judgment I can bring to it.”[42]
November 28, 1861
Federal authorities order the confiscation of all crops in Port Royal Sound area. Formerly enslaved individuals are to be utilized in harvesting them and to work on Union Army installations and defensive works.[43]
The North celebrates a Day of Thanksgiving.[44]
December 1861
Petitions, resolutions and bills to abolish slavery in states “in rebellion” are introduced into the United States Congress. Thomas Eliot, of Massachusetts, submits a resolution asking Lincoln, under the War Powers provision of the Constitution, to free enslaved individuals in the rebellious states. Congressman Owen Lovejoy calls for allowing Blacks to serve in the Union Army. Additionally, there are resolutions to repeal the Fugitive Slave Act.[45]
December 3, 1861
President Lincoln sends annual message to Congress. He writes, “…A disloyal portion of the American people have, during the whole year, been engaged in an attempt to divide and destroy the Union. … The Union must be preserved, and hence, all indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to determine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal as well as the disloyal, are indispensable.”[46] Lincoln recommends official program of compensated emancipation and colonization of individuals freed from slavery.[47]
1862
Treaty signed between United States and Great Britain for the suppression of the slave trade (African Slave Trade Treaty Act).
January 1862
The United States Congress continues the debate on emancipating enslaved individuals, colonization, and compensation of slaveholders. Radical Republicans continue to submit petitions and bills to this effect.[48]
January 13, 1862
President Lincoln announces his nomination of Edwin M. Stanton as the new Secretary of War. Stanton is an opponent of slavery.[49]
January 15, 1862
The United States Senate confirms the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as Secretary of War.[50]
March 1862
President Lincoln writes to newspaper editor and abolitionist Horace Greeley that the primary war aim of the United States is saving the Union, and “not either to save or destroy slavery.”
March 6, 1862
Abraham Lincoln sends message to the U.S. Congress proposing a plan of gradual, compensated emancipation in the loyal slave states. It states, “I recommend the adoption of a Joint Resolution by your honorable bodies which shall be substantially as follows: ‘Resolved that the United States ought to co-operate with any state which may adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid, to be used by such state in it's discretion, to compensate for the inconveniences public and private, produced by such change of system.’” [51] The proposal is very quickly approved by Congress. Many of the New York papers endorse the proposal. Lincoln makes the goal of ending slavery in the United States an official policy. The abolitionist community also enthusiastically supports the proposal.[52]
March 9, 1862
President Lincoln discusses possible conference on gradual compensated emancipation with Congressman Blair.[53]
President Lincoln comments to Congressman Henry Raymond on the subject of the cost of compensated emancipation: “My dear Sir: I am grateful to the New-York Journals, and not less so to the Times than to others, for their kind notices of the late special Message to Congress. Your paper, however, intimates that the proposition, though well-intentioned, must fail on the score of expense. I do hope you will reconsider this. Have you noticed the facts that less than one half-day's cost of this war would pay for all the slaves in Delaware, at four hundred dollars per head?---that eighty-seven days cost of this war would pay for all in Delaware, Maryland, District of Columbia, Kentucky, and Missouri at the same price? Were those states to take the step, do you doubt that it would shorten the war more than eighty-seven days, and thus be an actual saving of expense. Please look at these things, and consider whether there should not be another article in the Times?”[54]
March 13, 1862
President Lincoln approves an act of the Congress that prohibits Union Army commanders from returning captured or fugitive slaves to their owners (except for loyal slave states). It supersedes the Fugitive Slave Act.[55]
March 24, 1862
President Lincoln writes to editor of the New York Tribune and abolitionist Horace Greeley regarding his support of gradual, compensated emancipation: “I am grateful for the generous sentiments and purposes expressed towards the administration. Of course I am anxious to see the policy proposed in the late special message, go forward; but you have advocated it from the first, so that I need to say little to you on the subject. If I were to suggest anything it would be that as the North are already for the measure, we should urge it persuasively, and not menacingly, upon the South. I am a little uneasy about the abolishment of slavery in this District, not but I would be glad to see it abolished, but as to the time and manner of doing it. If some one or more of the border-states would move fast, I should greatly prefer it; but if this can not be in a reasonable time, I would like the bill to have the three main features---gradual---compensation---and vote of the people---I do not talk to members of congress on the subject, except when they ask me. I am not prepared to make any suggestion about confiscation. I may drop you a line hereafter.”[56]
Horace Greeley, publisher of the New York Tribune, agrees to endorse gradual compensated emancipation of slaves.[57]
United States Congress debates issue of compensated emancipation.[58]
Late March 1862
Lincoln discusses his proposal for gradual compensated emancipation with abolitionist leader Wendell Phillips. Lincoln tells Phillips, “the negro who has once touched the hem of the government’s garment shall never again be a slave.”[59]
April 2, 1862
On Lincoln’s recommendation, U.S. Senate passes resolution calling for gradual compensated abolition of slavery.[60]
April 3, 1862
Union General David Dard Hunter requests permission from the Army to recruit Black men from the South Carolina Sea Islands for service in the military. The War Department does not respond, and he begins recruiting Black soldiers on his own authority.
April 5, 1862
The Union Army, under General McClellan, begins setting up siege lines in front of Yorktown, Virginia.[61]
Lincoln supports bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.[62]
April 6-7, 1862
Battle of Pittsburg Landing (Shiloh), Tennessee. It is a limited Union victory, with 13,047 Union casualties, 10,694 Confederate.[63]
April 7, 1862
United States House of Representatives appoints a Committee on Emancipation and Colonization of Blacks.[64]
Lincoln signs treaty with England for the Suppression of the International African Slave Trade. He transmits the treaty to the Senate for ratification on April 10, 1862.[65] The treaty is ratified unanimously by the upper house on April 24, 1862.[66]
April 10, 1862
United States Congress announces it will cooperate with any state in the gradual emancipation of its slaves (House Resolution 48).[67]
Lincoln proclaims a Day of Thanksgiving by Union forces.
April 11, 1862
Union Major General David D. Hunter, commander of the Department of the South, issues order freeing slaves who come into his lines.[68]
After much debate, United States Congress passes bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia.[69]
Fall of Fort Pulaski on the Savannah River near the Port of Savannah, Georgia. This is a significant Union success.[70]
April 13, 1862
Representatives from the Freedman’s Association call on Lincoln to give Blacks abandoned plantations at Port Royal, South Carolina.[71]
April 16, 1862
Lincoln signs law, “An Act for the Release of Certain Persons Held to Service, or Labor in the District of Columbia,” passed by United States Congress, providing for immediate, compensated emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia. It is the first Federal law giving enslaved individuals immediate emancipation. It ends slavery as an institution; it is not a measure to enforce the Confiscation Act. More than 3,000 enslaved individuals are freed. Approximately $900,000 is paid to the former slaveholders by the Federal government. Congress soon repeals the Black Codes of the District. Many enslaved individuals in the areas surrounding Washington will soon escape to freedom there. [72]
April 25, 1862
Union Navy under Admiral Farragut arrives at New Orleans, capturing the city. New Orleans’ waterfront is burned by city population. The Mississippi River is opened.[73]
May 9, 1862
Major General David D. Hunter, an abolitionist, issues General Order No. 11, freeing slaves in his Department in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. He does it without presidential authority. It affects more than 900,000 African Americans. He also authorizes his officers to enlist Black volunteers.[74]
May 19, 1862
President Lincoln nullifies orders of Union Major General Hunter that freed slaves in states of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.[75] He writes “that neither General Hunter, nor any other commander, or person, has been authorized by the Government of the United States to make proclamations declaring the slaves of any State free.”[76]
The U.S. House of Representatives approves resolution that will prohibit slavery from all Federal territories, without compensation to slaveholders.[77]
May 20, 1862
Lincoln signs the Homestead Act, enacted by Congress. It is an important anti-slavery program. It makes 160 acres of public land available to citizens who have not carried arms against the United States.[78]
May 31 – June 1, 1862
Battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks, Virginia.[79]
June 5, 1862
President Lincoln approves congressional bill to appoint commissioners and establish relations with Haiti and Liberia. These are the first Black-led governments to be recognized by the United States Congress.[80]
June 9, 1862
The U.S. Senate approves of a resolution that will prohibit slavery from all federal territories. This is without compensation to former slave holders.[81]
Lincoln signs bill prohibiting slavery from all federal territories into law.
June 19, 1862
The U.S. Congress approves of a resolution that will prohibit slavery from all federal territories. This is without compensation to former slave holders.[82]
June 20, 1862
Delegation of Progressive Friends (Quakers) visits with Lincoln at the White House. They present him a memorial opposing slavery. Their petition expresses their “desire that he might… free the slaves and thus save the nation from destruction.” Lincoln replies that he believes that slavery is wrong, and that he “had sometime thought that perhaps he might be an instrument in God's hands of accomplishing a great work and he certainly was not unwilling to be.”[83]
July 7, 1862
Lincoln meets with Major General McClellan at Army of the Potomac headquarters at Harrison’s Landing, Virginia. McClellan attempts to advise the president on military and political policy. He recommends against “forcible abolition of slavery.”[84]
July 11-12, 1862
After much debate, the United States Congress approves the Second Confiscation Act. It signals a major shift in Union policy toward the freeing of enslaved individuals who enter Union lines or are in occupied Union territory.[85]
July 12, 1862
President Lincoln asks senators and congressmen from the four Union border states to support gradual, compensated emancipation. On July 14, the political leaders from these states reject Lincoln’s plan.[86]
President Lincoln appoints a United States Consul General for Haiti.[87]
July 13, 1862
Lincoln discusses plans for general emancipation of slaves with cabinet members William H. Seward and Gideon Welles. [88] Welles recalls Lincoln saying that “It was a military necessity absolutely essential for the salvation of the Union,” and “that emancipation in Rebel areas must precede that in the border, not the other way around.”
July 14, 1862
Lincoln sends Congress draft of a bill to give Federal compensation to states who emancipate their slaves. Congress does not act on this proposal.[89]
July 17, 1862
Congress enacts the Second Confiscation Act. It is called “An Act to Suppress Insurrection, and to Punish Treason and Rebellion, to Seize and Confiscate Property of Rebels and for Other Purposes.” This act grants freedom to slaves whose masters participated in the secession.[90]
Congress passes the Militia Act. This act allows the U.S. Armed Forces to give employment to Blacks “in any military or naval service for which they may be found competent.” Slaves who worked for the U.S. military are to be declared free.[91]
July 22, 1862
Abraham Lincoln submits a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, to be effective July 1, 1863. It declares that on January 1, 1863, “All persons held as slaves within any state or states [in Confederate control] shall then, thenceforward, and forever, be free.” Abolition was to be immediate and with no compensation to the slaveholders. The Secretary of War calls for it to be issued immediately. Secretary of State Seward advises Lincoln not to issue it until after a major victory in the war.[92]
Lincoln issues executive order authorizing, “1. Military commanders may seize and use real property in rebel States for military purposes. 2. Military and naval commanders may employ as laborers persons of African descent, giving them reasonable wages for their labors. 3. Accounts of property of all kinds taken from owners shall be kept as basis for proper compensation.”[93]
July 25, 1862
President Lincoln promulgates the Confiscation Act of Congress.[94]
July 28, 1862
President Lincoln writes to prominent New Orleans citizen Cuthbert Bullitt, who protested Union General John W. Phelps’ aid to enslaved individuals who came to Union lines. “Mr. Durant complains that in various ways the relation of master and slave is disturbed by the presence of our Army; and he considers it particularly vexatious that this, in part, is done under cover of an act of Congress, while constitutional guaranties are suspended on the plea of military necessity. The truth is, that what is done, and omitted, about slaves, is done and omitted on the same military necessity. It is a military necessity to have men and money; and we can get neither, in sufficient numbers, or amounts, if we keep from, or drive from, our lines, slaves coming to them. Mr. Durant cannot be ignorant of the pressure in this direction; nor of my efforts to hold it within bounds till he, and such as he shall have time to help themselves.”[95]
July 31, 1862
President Lincoln writes to August Belmont regarding ending of slavery and its effects. “Broken eggs cannot be mended; but Louisiana has nothing to do now but to take her place in the Union as it was, barring the already broken eggs. The sooner she does so, the smaller will be the amount of that which will be past mending. This government cannot much longer play a game in which it stakes all, and its enemies stake nothing. Those enemies must understand that they cannot experiment for ten years trying to destroy the government, and if they fail still come back into the Union unhurt. If they expect in any contingency to ever have the Union as it was, I join with the writer in saying, ‘Now is the time.’”[96]
August 2, 1862
President Lincoln discusses emancipation with cabinet members.[97]
August 3, 1862
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, in cabinet meeting, called for: “1. Assuring freedom to Negroes in seceded states on condition of loyalty; 2. Organizing best of them into military companies; 3. Providing for cultivation of plantations by remaining ones.”[98]
August 4, 1862
President Lincoln is offered two African American regiments from Indiana for the Union Army. He agrees only to use them as laborers, not as soldiers.[99]
President Lincoln calls for 300,000 volunteers for service in the military for a term of nine months.[100]
August 14, 1862
Lincoln meets with African leaders at the White House. This is the first time that an American president meets with Black community leaders in a public meeting. He recommends that they support colonization of African Americans in Central America or in Africa. They reject this proposed plan. He tells them, “But for your race among us there could not be war… It is better for us both, therefore, to be separated.”[101]
August 19, 1862
Horace Greeley’s anti-slavery New York Tribune editorial, “A Prayer of the Twenty Millions,” is read by President Lincoln. It calls into question Lincoln’s policy on slavery and the war: “We complain that the Union cause has suffered…from mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery.” [102]
August 21, 1862
Confederate President Jefferson Davis declares that Union Major General David D. Hunter and Brigadier General John W. Phelps are acting as criminals because they are enlisting slaves for the Federal Army. He directs that if taken, they should be held as felons. General Phelps resigns from the Army the same day.[103]
August 22, 1862
President Lincoln responds to Horace Greeley’s editorial, “A Prayer of Twenty Millions,” which had called for immediate emancipation of slaves. Lincoln writes, “My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and it is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. / I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every where could be free.” (See Appendix for full text.)[104]
August 25, 1862
Major General Rufus Saxton, Union Commander of the Southern Department, is authorized by the War Department to arm and train 5,000 former slaves for use as guards of captured plantations and settlements in the South Carolina Sea Islands.[105]
August 26, 1862
Lincoln states his plans to enforce the Confiscation Acts recently passed by Congress.[106]
September 2, 1862
Lincoln writes “Meditation on the Devine Will.” He ponders: “In great contests each party claims the act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for and against the same thing at the same time.”[107]
September 13, 1862
President Lincoln replies to delegation from Chicago advocating for national emancipation of slaves. He states, “It is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it! ... I view the matter as a practical war measure, to be decided upon according to the advantages or disadvantages it may offer to the suppression of the rebellion.”[108]
September 15, 1862
President Lincoln rejects offer of service of three African American regiments from Massachusetts and Rhode Island.[109]
September 17, 1862
Union victory at Antietam, in Maryland. Lee’s Maryland Campaign is ended. The Union suffers the largest number of casualties in a single day of fighting in the Civil War, with 2,010 killed, 9,416 wounded and 1,043 missing, totaling 12,469 out of 75,000 soldiers.[110]
President Lincoln completes second draft of preliminary emancipation proclamation at the Soldier’s Home.[111]
September 20, 1862
Lincoln continues to work on his text of the preliminary emancipation proclamation.[112]
September 22, 1862
United States President Abraham Lincoln announces preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. It declares that “on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred sixty-three, all persons held as slaves, within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.” The Proclamation further states (as summarized by Miers): “President will designate states in rebellion on Jan. 1. Army and navy personnel are prohibited by Act of March 13, 1862, from returning fugitive slaves. The act to suppress insurrection, approved July 17, 1862, provides that: 1. Escaped slaves and those in territory occupied by forces of U.S. shall be free. 2. Run-away slaves will not be delivered up except for crime or claim of lawful owner under oath that he has not borne arms against government. Executive will recommend that loyal citizens be compensated for all losses by acts of U.S., including loss of slaves.”[113] Lincoln calls on Congress to approve legislation for compensated emancipation of slaves.[114]
September 24, 1862
Crowd gathers at the presidential executive mansion in honor of the issuing of the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln declares, “What I did, I did after full deliberation, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I can only trust in God I have made no mistake.”[115]
Fourteen Northern governors meeting in Altoona, Pennsylvania, approve of the Emancipation Proclamation.[116]
Lincoln issues proclamation suspending the writ of habeas corpus. “Now, therefore, be it ordered, first, that during the existing insurrection and as a necessary measure for suppressing the same, all Rebels and Insurgents, their aiders and abettors within the United States, and all persons discouraging volunteer enlistments, resisting militia drafts, or guilty of any disloyal practice, affording aid and comfort to Rebels against the authority of the United States, shall be subject to martial law and liable to trial and punishment by Courts Martial or Military Commission; Second. That the Writ of Habeas Corpus is suspended in respect to all persons arrested, or who are now, or hereafter during the rebellion shall be, imprisoned in any fort, camp, arsenal, military prison, or other place of confinement by any military authority or by the sentence of any Court Martial or Military Commission.” [117]
September 25, 1862
President Lincoln meets with Henry Ward Beecher and General Association of Congregational Churches of New York City to present resolutions regarding his Emancipation Proclamation.[118]
September 28, 1862
Lincoln discusses public opinion of preliminary Emancipation Proclamation with Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. It is “not very satisfactory.” “The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels.”[119]
October 1, 1862
The Richmond Whig reported its opinion on Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: “It is a dash of the pen to destroy four thousand millions of our property, and is as much a bid for the slaves to rise in insurrection, with the assurance of aid from the whole military and naval power of the United States.”[120]
October 11, 1862
Confederate Congress amends the draft exemption law. It exempts Southern owners or overseers of more than 20 slaves from military service.[121]
October 26, 1862
Of the war, Lincoln writes, “If I had had my way, this war would never have been commenced; … but we find it still continues; and we must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of his own, mysterious and unknown to us.”[122] On his opinion of divine will, Lincoln writes, “The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be wrong. God can not be for, and against the same thing at the same time. … By his mere quiet power, on the minds of the now contestants, He could have either saved or destroyed the Union without a human contest. Yet the contest began. And having begun He could give the final victory to either side any day. Yet the contest proceeds.”[123]
November 4, 1862
Midterm elections are held. Democrats gain Congressional seats in New York, New Jersey, Illinois, and Wisconsin. Republicans, however, hold majority in Congress with wins in New England, Michigan and California.[124]
November 13, 1862
Lincoln tasks U.S. Attorney General Edward Bates with the enforcement of the Provision of Federal Confiscation (“An Act to Suppress Insurrection, to Punish Treason and Rebellion”).[125]
November 21, 1862
Lincoln meets with unconditional Union Kentuckians to discuss issue of emancipation. The New York Times reports, “He said that he would rather die than take back a word of the Proclamation of Freedom…”[126]
November 29, 1862
U.S. Attorney General issues ruling that freedmen born in the U.S. are legally American citizens.[127]
December 1, 1862
Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress.
Abraham Lincoln sends annual message to Congress continuing to support compensated emancipation. Lincoln states, “Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? … The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall our selves, and then we shall save our country. / Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We---even we here---hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free---honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best, hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just---a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless. / December 1, 1862. ABRAHAM LINCOLN”[128]
December 13, 1862
Union Army is defeated in major battle at Fredericksburg, Virginia. There are 12,655 Union and 5,390 Confederate casualties. This causes a political crisis in Lincoln’s cabinet.[129]
December 23, 1862
Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs order that Black troops captured will be treated as slaves in insurrection and not as prisoners of war.[130]
December 29, 1862
President Lincoln reads Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet.[131]
December 30, 1862
President Lincoln presents copy of Emancipation Proclamation to members of his cabinet. He asks for comments from them.[132]
December 31, 1862
Lincoln’s cabinet meets to finalize draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.[133]
Lincoln signs act admitting West Virginia into the Union as a state.[134]
1863
The American Freedman’s Inquiry Commission is created by the U.S. War Department.
Women’s National Loyal League is founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It lobbies for the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to grant African Americans the right to vote. It collects 400,000 signatures in a petition presented to the Congress.
January 1, 1863
On New Year’s Day at noon, in the cabinet room, United States President Abraham Lincoln signs Emancipation Proclamation. It goes into effect, freeing slaves in states that have seceded and are part of the Confederacy. Most slaves in “border states” are freed by state action. It states: “That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”[135]
January 7, 1863
The Richmond Enquirer states that the Emancipation Proclamation is “The most startling political crime, the most stupid political blunder, yet known in American history. … Southern people have now only to choose between victory and death.”[136]
January 8, 1863
President Lincoln writes to Major General McClernand, defending the Emancipation Proclamation, “…it must stand. As to the states not included in it, of course they can have their rights in the Union as of old.”[137]
January 12, 1863
Congressman Thaddeus Stevens introduces bill calling for the enlistment of 150,000 African American soldiers in the Union Army.[138]
January 19, 1863
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is debated in the Confederate Congress.[139]
February 1863
Anti-slavery and abolitionist congressman Thaddeus Stevens gets a bill through Congress authorizing the enlistment of 150,000 United States colored soldiers.[140]
March 3, 1863
President Lincoln calls for an act by Congress, which will be the first federal draft. It is called “An Act for enrolling and calling out the National Forces, and for other purposes.” Male citizens between 20 and 40 are eligible. 162,535 men are drafted during the war, about six percent of the total number of men who serve in the Union forces.[141]
March 4, 1863
The United States Congress adjourns.
March 16, 1863
The American Freedmen’s Inquiry Commission (AFIC) is created within the War Department by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. It is tasked with helping freed slaves.[142]
March 23, 1863
Treaty between Liberia and the United States is enacted.[143]
March 26, 1863
West Virginia approves gradual emancipation for slaves.[144]
Lincoln writes the military governor of Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, “I am told you have at least thought of raising a negro military force. In my opinion the country now needs no specific thing so much as some man of your ability, and position, to go to this work. When I speak of your position, I mean that of an eminent citizen of a slave-state, and himself a slave-holder. The colored population is the great available and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union. The bare sight of fifty thousand armed, and drilled black soldiers on the banks of the Mississippi, would end the rebellion at once. And who doubts that we can present that sight, if we but take hold in earnest? If you have been thinking of it please do not dismiss the thought.”[145]
March 31, 1863
President Lincoln writes General David D. Hunter: “I am glad I am glad to see the accounts of your colored force at Jacksonville, Florida. I see the enemy are driving at them fiercely, as is to be expected. It is important to the enemy that such a force shall not take shape, and grow, and thrive, in the South; and in precisely the same proportion, it is important to us that it shall. Hence the utmost caution and vigilance is necessary on our part. The enemy will make extra efforts to destroy them; and we should do the same to preserve and increase them.”[146]
April 2, 1863
President Lincoln meets noted abolitionist journalist Jane Grey Swisshelm at the White House.[147]
April 15, 1863
Lincoln meets with Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the subject of influencing policy regarding slavery, which would positively influence England toward the Union. Lincoln drafts this resolution: “Whereas, while heretofore, States, and Nations, have tolerated slavery, recently, for the first in the world, an attempt has been made to construct a new Nation, upon the basis of, and with the primary, and fundamental object to maintain, enlarge, and perpetuate human slavery, therefore, Resolved, That no such embryo State should ever be recognized by, or admitted into, the family of christian and civilized nations; and that all ch[r]istian and civilized men everywhere should, by all lawful means, resist to the utmost, such recognition or admission.”[148]
President Lincoln meets U.S. Senator Charles Sumner in the White House regarding slavery and British attitudes toward the Union.[149]
April 20, 1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring the State of West Virginia will be admitted to the Union.[150]
May 1-4, 1863
Battle of Chancellorsville (Second Fredericksburg; Salem Church), Virginia. Confederate victory. The Union sustains 17,287 casualties between April 27 and May 11; Confederates, 12,764.[151]
May 22, 1863
The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society meets in London. It supports the U.S. government and the Union.[152]
May 27, 1863
First Union assault of Port Hudson, Mississippi begins. It is led by General Nathaniel Banks, with a Federal force of 13,000 soldiers. It includes U.S. Colored infantrymen. Federal casualties are 1,995; Confederate, about 235.[153]
May 28, 1863
The U.S. Black regiment, the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Volunteers, departs Boston for Hilton Head, South Carolina.[154]
June 20, 1863
West Virginia officially becomes the 35th state of the Union.[155]
June 23, 1863
Tullahoma, or Middle Tennessee Campaign, begins under Union Major General William S. Rosecrans. It is a Union victory, ending in early July with no major fighting.[156]
President Lincoln relieves Major General Joseph Hooker from command of the Army of the Potomac. Major General George Gordon Meade is name commander.[157]
July 1-3, 1863
Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. General Meade’s Army of the Potomac defeats General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. In three days of fighting, more than ten thousand are killed and forty thousand wounded on both sides.[158]
July 4, 1863
General Lee and his army retreat from Gettysburg. He is not pursued by Union forces.[159]
Vicksburg, Mississippi, formally surrenders to Union forces, commanded by General U. S. Grant.[160]
July 7, 1863
Lincoln addresses a large crowd at the White House. “I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it?---eighty odd years---since on the Fourth of July for the first time in the history of the world a nation by its representatives, assembled and declared as a self-evident truth that ‘all men are created equal.’ … Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme, and the occasion for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy of the occasion.”[161]
July 13-17, 1863
New York City draft riots. Fires break out throughout the city. A Black church and orphanage are burned. Blacks are the primary targets of mobs. It is estimated that a thousand people are killed or wounded. Property losses are estimated at $1.5 million.[162]
July 18, 1863
The 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry leads a major assault on Fort Wagner, near Charleston, South Carolina. It takes very heavy casualties, including the death of its commanding officer, Colonel Robert Gould Shaw.[163]
July 20, 1863
Lincoln discusses issues of slavery in the border states with Congressmen Lovejoy and Arnold.[164]
July 21, 1863
Lincoln confers with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton “to raise colored forces along the shores of the Mississippi.” Recommends Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas for the task.[165]
July 30, 1863
After the Confederate government threatens to kill captured U.S. Colored Troops, President Lincoln announces that the U.S. government would “give the same protection to all its soldiers, and if the enemy shall sell or enslave anyone because of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the enemy’s prisoners in our possession.”[166] It is General Order No. 252. It states “that for every soldier of the United States killed in violation of the laws of war, a rebel soldiers shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on the public works.”[167]
August 5, 1863
Lincoln writes Union General Nathaniel Banks. He declares he is “an anti-slavery man… For my part I think I shall not, in any event, retract the Emancipation Proclamation; nor, as executive, even return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.”[168]
August 6, 1863
The north observes Day of Thanksgiving for its victories in the war.[169]
August 9, 1863
Lincoln writes General Grant that colored troops are “a resource which, if vigorously applied now, will soon close the contest.”[170]
August 10, 1863
Frederick Douglass meets with President Lincoln in the White House to discuss recruiting of African American troops.[171]
August 26, 1863
Lincoln sends letter to J. C. Conkling discussing peace and the emancipation of slaves. “There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would say: You desire peace; and you blame me that we do not have it. But how can we attain it? … If you are not for force, nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compromise. I do not believe any compromise, embracing the maintenance of the Union, is now possible. All I learn, leads to a directly opposite belief. The strength of the rebellion, is its military—its army.”[172]
September 2, 1863
Lincoln meets with Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase regarding enforcing the Emancipation Proclamation in the areas of Louisiana and Virginia.[173]
September 11, 1863
President Lincoln asks governor of Tennessee Andrew Johnson to establish loyal state government.[174]
September 15, 1863
President Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus for persons held by Union military and civil authorities.[175]
September 19-20, 1863
Battle of Chickamauga, southeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee. General George H. Thomas commands the Federal Army of the Cumberland opposing General Braxton Bragg’s Confederate Army of Tennessee. It is a tactical victory for the South. The North sustains 16,170 casualties, the South, 18,454.[176]
October 3, 1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring last Thursday in November as Day of Thanksgiving.[177]
Lincoln discusses enlistment of slaves and Blacks from Maryland with Governor Bradford.[178]
October 17, 1863
President Lincoln issues proclamation calling for enlistment of 300,000 volunteers.[179]
November 2, 1863
President Lincoln is invited to make a “few appropriate remarks” at a dedication ceremony on November 19 in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for a new national military cemetery.[180]
November 19, 1863
Lincoln delivers Gettysburg Address at the dedication of a newly established military cemetery.[181]
December 8, 1863
President Lincoln issues Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction. It would pardon individuals who “directly or by implication, participated in the existing rebellion.”[182]
Lincoln issues annual message to Congress. He states that emancipation is having a favorable effect. The message states, in part: “The preliminary emancipation proclamation, issued in September, was running its assigned period to the beginning of the new year. A month later the final proclamation came, including the announcement that colored men of suitable condition would be received into the war service. The policy of emancipation, and of employing black soldiers, gave to the future a new aspect, about which hope, and fear, and doubt contended in uncertain conflict. According to our political system, as a matter of civil administration, the general government had no lawful power to effect emancipation in any State, and for a long time it had been hoped that the rebellion could be suppressed without resorting to it as a military measure. It was all the while deemed possible that the necessity for it might come, and that if it should, the crisis of the contest would then be presented. It came, and as was anticipated, it was followed by dark and doubtful days. Eleven months having now passed, we are permitted to take another review.”[183]
December 17, 1863
President Lincoln sends plan to Congress to create a Federal Bureau of Emancipation, as proposed by the Freedmen’s Aid Society.[184]
December 20, 1863
President Lincoln tells Henry C. Wright, an abolitionist official of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, “I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any acts of Congress.”[185]
1864
400,000 enslaved individuals have escaped into Union Army lines and areas.[186]
January 11, 1864
Senator John B. Hewson, of Missouri, proposes a thirteenth amendment to the constitution to abolish slavery.[187]
January 23, 1864
President Lincoln proposes plan to have plantation owners honor the freedom of their former slaves and hire them back with fair wages. He states, “I should regard such cases with great favor, and should, as the principle, treat them precisely as I would treat the same number of free white people in the same relation and condition.”[188]
February 22, 1864
President Lincoln is endorsed for re-election by the Republican National Convention.[189]
February 24, 1864
President Lincoln approves an act of Congress to compensate Union (border state) slave owners whose slaves enlist in the U.S. Army. The slaves would become free. Blacks would also be subject to the draft.[190]
February 28, 1864
President Lincoln sends Union Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas to aid Blacks (“contrabands”) along Union-held territory on the Mississippi.[191]
March 4, 1864
The United States Senate confirms Andrew Johnson as Union military governor of Tennessee.[192]
March 7, 1864
Lincoln writes to U.S. Congressman John A. J. Creswell, Representative from Maryland, regarding gradual emancipation of slaves from the state. He states, “My wish is that all who are for emancipation in any form, shall co-operate, all treating all respectfully, and all adopting and acting upon the major opinion, when fairly ascertained.”[193]
March 9, 1864
General Grant is officially commissioned as Lieutenant General in the Regular Army. Lincoln remarks, “The nation’s appreciation of what you have done, and it’s reliance upon you for what remains to do, in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant General in the Army of the United States.”[194]
March 10, 1864
Lieutenant General Grant is given command of the Armies of the United States.[195]
March 12, 1864
Major General Henry Halleck is appointed Chief of Staff of the Union Army.[196]
Major General William T. Sherman is assigned to command the Military Division of the Mississippi. He will command the Departments of the Arkansas, Cumberland, Ohio and Tennessee.[197]
March 13, 1864
President Lincoln writes Governor Michael Hahn of Louisiana, “I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the first-free-state Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have a Convention which, among other things, will probably define the elective franchise. I barely suggest for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in—as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks. They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty within the family of freedom.”[198]
March 16, 1864
Pro-Union voters in Arkansas ratify state constitution that formally abolishes slavery.[199]
March 17, 1864
Lincoln writes to Maryland Congressman John A. J. Creswell, “It needs not to be a secret, that I wish success to emancipation in Maryland. It would aid much to end the rebellion.”[200]
March 22, 1864
Lincoln writes, “I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing, that no man desires for himself.”[201]
March 25, 1864
Abolitionist and political leader Owen Lovejoy dies. He supported the abolition of slavery as a United States Congressman.
April 4, 1864
President Lincoln writes to Albert G. Hodges, a Kentucky newspaper editor, “I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel. And yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. … And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery. … I did understand however, that my oath to preserve the constitution to the best of my ability, imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that government—that nation—of which that constitution was the organic law. … When, in March, and May, and July 1862 I made earnest, and successive appeals to the border states to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation, and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it, the Constitution, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter.”[202]
April 5, 1864
Lincoln acknowledges petition of “the children of the United States; that the President will free all slave children.” The petition was given to Lincoln by Mrs. Horace Mann. Lincoln writes, “The petition of persons under eighteen, praying that I would free all slave children, and the heading of which petition it appears you wrote, was handed me a few days since by Senator Sumner. Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, and that, while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it. Yours truly A. LINCOLN”[203]
April 6, 1864
Louisiana State Constitutional Convention adopts new state constitution, abolishing slavery.[204]
Lincoln goes to U.S. House of Representatives to hear speech by English anti-slavery orator George Thompson.[205]
April 7, 1864
Lincoln meets with anti-slavery lecturer George Thompson at White House. Discusses emancipation.[206]
April 8, 1864
U.S. Senate passes a joint resolution approving the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, calling for the immediate, uncompensated abolition of slavery. The vote is 38 to 6, in favor.[207]
April 11, 1864
Union state government in Arkansas is established. Dr. Isaac Murphy is its governor.[208]
April 12, 1864
Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest massacres U.S. Colored Troops at the Battle of Fort Pillow, Tennessee. 262 Black soldiers are murdered after they surrender.[209]
April 18, 1864
Lincoln speaks at the Sanitary Fair in Baltimore. “We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”[210]
April 19, 1864
By an Act of Congress, Nebraska Territory is admitted to the Union.[211]
May 3, 1864
Lincoln discusses Fort Pillow massacre in Tennessee with members of his cabinet.[212]
May 4, 1864
Army of Potomac, led by General Grant, moves across the Rapidan River into Virginia. Grant has 122,000 soldiers.[213]
May 5, 1864
Battle of the Wilderness commences. It is the first major battle of 1864.[214]
May 7, 1864
General William T. Sherman begins march on Atlanta, Georgia. He has 100,000 soldiers.
May 11, 1864
Newly adopted Louisiana state constitution has provisions for emancipation of slaves without compensation.[215]
May 24, 1864
Abolitionist leader, attorney, and congressman, Joshua Reed Giddings, dies. He opposed the Gag Rule in Congress, and the extension of slavery to the western territories.
June 5, 1864
Congress votes 95-66 for a joint resolution abolishing slavery. The resolution fails, as a two-thirds majority is needed.[216]
June 8, 1864
Delegates to the National Union Convention Meeting in Baltimore nominate Abraham Lincoln for a second term as president. Andrew Johnson, military governor of Tennessee, is nominated for vice president. The party platform calls for a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.[217]
June 9, 1864
Party leaders notify Lincoln of his nomination for president. He approves one of the party platforms of a constitutional amendment to end slavery. Lincoln declares, “Such [an] amendment of the Constitution as is] now proposed became a fitting, and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause.[218]
June 15, 1864
President Lincoln signs bill giving partial retroactive equal pay for U.S. Colored Troops. He gives full equal pay in March 1865.[219]
June 16, 1864
Army of the Potomac begins assault of Petersburg, Virginia.[220]
June 17, 1864
President Lincoln delivers a speech at the Great Central Fair in Philadelphia. He says, “War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible… We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained.”[221]
June 18, 1864
General Grant’s attempt to take Petersburg is unsuccessful. He begins siege against the city.[222]
June 24, 1864
In a State Constitutional Convention, Maryland votes to abolish slavery.[223]
June 27, 1864
President Abraham Lincoln formally accepts the Republican Party’s nomination for president.[224]
June 28, 1864
President Lincoln signs acts repealing Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and all laws for returning fugitive slaves to their owners.[225]
June 30, 1864
Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase resigns from office. Lincoln accepts his resignation, stating, “You and I have reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official relation which it seems can not be overcome, or longer sustained, consistently with the public service.”[226]
July 1, 1864
Long-time Senator from Maine and prominent abolitionist, William Pitt Fessenden, is appointed by Lincoln as the new Secretary of the Treasury. He replaces Salmon P. Chace, who resigned. His appointment is immediately confirmed by Congress.[227]
The United States Senate votes to approve the Wade-Davis Reconstruction Bill. Lincoln refuses to sign the bill.[228]
July 4, 1864
The first session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress adjourns. President Lincoln pocket-vetoes the Wade Davis Bill, which in part would have given freedom to all slaves in the Confederate South through Congressional laws. The Bill also specified that Congress would control reconstruction, not the President.[229]
July 5, 1864
President Lincoln suspends writ of habeas corpus and declares martial law in Kentucky.[230]
July 8, 1864
President Lincoln announces his support for a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. Further, he states that he does not believe that Congress has the authority to end slavery.[231]
President Lincoln issues presidential proclamation regarding reconstruction in the South.[232]
July 11, 1864
Confederate forces under General Early invade outskirts of Washington, DC. Skirmishing takes place in Frederick, Maryland, and at Fort Stevens. President Lincoln, witnessing the attack, comes under fire.[233]
July 12, 1864
Confederate attack in Washington suburbs is repulsed. General Early’s forces retreat. Lincoln again sees fighting.[234]
July 18, 1864
Lincoln writes memorandum regarding his policy for peace. It is delivered to Horace Greely and John Hay for transmission to persons in Canada. It states, “Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States will be received and considered by the Executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points; and the bearer, or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways..”[235]
Lincoln calls for 500,000 additional volunteers for the Union Army.[236]
July 22, 1864
General William T. Sherman defeats General John Bell Hood’s Confederate forces in the Battle for Atlanta, Georgia. Union casualties are 3,722; Confederate are at least 7,000.[237]
July 23, 1864
The Louisiana State Constitutional Convention adopts measure that will abolish slavery in the state.[238]
August 5, 1864
Victory for Admiral David Farragut and the Union Navy in the Battle of Mobile Bay. The Confederate bay is captured and closed.[239]
August 19, 1864
Lincoln meets with Frederick Douglass in the White House. They discuss announcing the Emancipation Proclamation to slaves.[240]
August 23, 1864
Lincoln asks his cabinet secretaries to sign without reading a statement written by the President in event he lost the election: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be reëlected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured the election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it afterward.”[241]
President Lincoln addressed the 166th Ohio Regiment at the White House. He says, “It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children’s children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. … I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father’s child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; … The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.”[242]
August 31, 1864
In Chicago, General George B. McClellan is nominated for President by the Democratic Party.[243]
September 2, 1864
General Sherman and his combined armies capture and occupy Atlanta, Georgia. General Slocum’s corps occupies the city. Sherman wires Abraham Lincoln, “Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.” This is a decisive Union victory and marks another major turning point in the war.[244]
September 5, 1864
President Lincoln proclaims day of victory for the capture of Atlanta and Mobile, Alabama.
Louisiana voters ratify a new state constitution, which provides for the abolition of slavery.[245]
September 6, 1864
Maryland’s State convention adopts new constitution, ending slavery.[246]
September 19, 1864
Federal victory in the Third Battle of Winchester, Virginia. Major General Phillip H. Sheridan commands Union forces.[247]
October 10, 1864
President Lincoln writes to Henry W. Hoffman, referring to the adoption of a new Maryland state constitution, which would prohibit slavery: “I wish all men to be free. I wish the material prosperity of the already free which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. I wish to see, in process of disappearing, that only thing which ever could bring this nation to civil war.”[248]
October 13, 1864
Maryland adopts new state constitution, which includes a provision for the abolition of slavery. The vote was 30,174 for and 29,799 opposed, a margin of only 375 votes.[249]
October 19, 1864
Union victory for Major General Phillip H. Sheridan in Battle of Cedar Creek, Virginia.[250]
October 29, 1864
President Lincoln issues proclamation declaring the last Thursday in November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty God….”
President Lincoln meets African American Sojourner Truth.[251]
October 31, 1864
President Lincoln admits the Territory of Nevada to the Union as the 36th state.[252]
November 7, 1864
Confederate President Davis recommends that his government purchase slaves to work in the army and then emancipate them at the end of service. Further, he states that the Confederacy would favor a negotiated peace, but only with an independent Confederacy, not “our unconditional submission or degradation.”[253]
November 8, 1864
Abraham Lincoln is re-elected as President of the United States, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, as Vice President. Lincoln states that the victory “will be to the lasting advantage, if not the very salvation, of the country.”[254]
November 10, 1864
In a speech, Lincoln states, “It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its own existence, in great emergencies.” In further remarks, Lincoln calls for unity: “May not all, having a common interest, be reunited in an effort to save our common country?” Lincoln commented that “the election was a necessity. We cannot have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us… [The election] had demonstrated that a people’s government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war.”[255]
November 14-15, 1864
General W. T. Sherman begins March from Atlanta to the Sea.[256] He has 62,000 Federals in two Armies.
November 19, 1864
Editorializing on Lincoln’s election, Harper’s Weekly writes: “This result is the proclamation of the American people that they are not conquered; that the rebellion is not successful; and that, deeply as they deplore war and its inevitable suffering and loss, yet they have no choice between war and national ruin, and must therefore fight on… Thank God and the people, we are a nation which comprehends its priceless importance to human progress and civilization, and which recognizes that law is the indispensable condition of Liberty.”[257]
December 5, 1864
U.S. Congress convenes for the second session of the 38th Congress.[258]
December 6, 1864
Lincoln delivers annual message to Congress. The Union, he declares, has “more men now than when the war began… We are gaining strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely.” The Union has one million men in uniform, with the world’s largest navy, comprised of 671 ships. He states that Sherman’s March to the Sea is “the most remarkable feature of military operations.” Lincoln urges the House of Representatives to pass the “proposed amendment of the Constitution abolishing slavery throughout the United States,” which had passed the Senate, and as it is to so go, may we not agree that the sooner the better.” [259]
Salmon P. Chace, former Secretary of the Treasury, is named Chief Justice of the United States.[260]
December 15-16, 1864
Decisive Union victory for Union General George H. Thomas in the Battle of Nashville, Tennessee.[261]
December 21, 1864
Savannah, Georgia is captured and occupied by Sherman’s Army. 17,000-25,000 enslaved individuals are freed during Sherman’s March to the Sea. Thousands of freemen volunteer as laborers, cooks, teamsters and pontoon and road builders. 8,000 individuals who had been freed from slavery enter Savannah with Sherman’s March. In addition, the 7,587 enslaved individuals living in and around Savannah are also freed.[262]
December 22, 1864
Sherman telegraphs President Lincoln: “I beg to present you as a Christmas-gift the city of Savannah…”[263]
December 26, 1864
President Lincoln telegraphs General Sherman: “MY DEAR GENERAL SHERMAN: Many, many thanks for your Christmas gift – the capture of Savannah.”
1865
Victory for the Union is virtually assured, with Grant at Petersburg, Thomas in Tennessee, and Sherman at Savannah. The Union Navy controls the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
The Confederate Congress expresses increasing unhappiness with President Davis and his administration. Confederates consider using enslaved individuals as soldiers. The U.S. Congress takes up the constitutional issue of enacting a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.
The Union Army stands at more than 600,000 soldiers ready for active duty. More than 300,000 are in reserve, for a total of nearly 960,000 soldiers. The Confederate forces total approximately 160,000 soldiers ready for active duty and a total force of 358,000.[264]
January 6, 1865
Congressman J. M. Ashley (R-Ohio) attempts to revive interest in the proposed 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. He states, “Mr. Speaker, if slavery is wrong and criminal, as the great body of enlightened Christian men admit, it is certainly our duty to abolish it, if we have the power.” The amendment had previously passed the Senate, but failed in the House. The House spends much of its time debating the issue.[265]
January 9, 1865
Tennessee Constitutional Convention adopts amendment abolishing slavery. It is ratified by votes on February 22.[266]
January 10, 1865
The debate over a constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery continues in the U.S. House of Representatives. Speaking in favor of the amendment, Congressman John A. Kasson, of Iowa, states that “you will never, never have reliable peace in this country while that institution exists…”[267]
January 11, 1865
Missouri’s Constitutional Convention adopts ordinance abolishing slavery.[268]
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, along with U.S. Army Quartermaster General Montgomery C. Meigs and other officials, arrives in Savannah, Georgia, to meet with General Sherman.
January 12, 1865
Congress continues to debate the Thirteenth Amendment and the abolition of slavery. Future president and Republican member of the House James A. Garfield states, “Mr. Speaker, we shall never know why slavery dies so hard in this Republic and in this Hall, till we know why sin outlives disaster, and Satan is immortal…” Radical Republican congressman Thaddeus Stevens regards slavery as “the worst institution upon earth, one which is a disgrace to man and would be an annoyance to the infernal spirits.”[269]
General Sherman and Secretary of War Stanton, along with Acting Adjutant General of the Army Brevet Brigadier General E. D. Townsend, meet with a group of 20 prominent African American clergymen and community leaders. Reverend Garrison Frazier, a 67-year old former pastor of the Third African Baptist Church, is asked to be the spokesman for the group. Sherman is asked to leave the room and is greatly offended by this. Stanton inquires about Sherman’s treatment of the African American community: “State what is the feeling of the colored people toward General Sherman, and how far do you regard his sentiments and actions as friendly to their rights and interests, or otherwise?” Frazier replies: “We looked upon General Sherman, prior to his arrival, as a man, in the providence of God, specially set aside to accomplish this work, and we unanimously felt inexpressible gratitude to him, looking upon him as a man who should be honored for the faithful performance of his duty. Some of us called upon him immediately upon his arrival, and it is probable he did not meet the secretary with more courtesy than he did us. His conduct and deportment toward us characterized him as a friend and gentleman. We have confidence in General Sherman, and think what concerns us could not be in better hands. This is our opinion now, for the short acquaintance and intercourse we have had.”[270]
January 16, 1865
General Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15. It provides for the confiscation of 400,000 acres of land along the Atlantic coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The order was issued to deal with the thousands of African American refugees who had joined Sherman’s march and were recently freed from slavery in the Savannah area. The order reads, in part: “I. The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of the negroes now made free by the acts of war and the proclamation of the President of the United States. / II. At Beaufort, Hilton Head, Savannah, Fernandina, St. Augustine, and Jacksonville the blacks may remain in their chosen or accustomed vocations; but on the islands, and in the settlements hereafter to be established, no white person whatever, unless military officers and soldiers detailed for duty, will be permitted to reside, and the sole and exclusive management of affairs will be left to the freed people themselves, subject only to the United States military authority, and the acts of Congress. By the laws of war and orders of the President of the United States, the negro is free, and must be dealt with as such.”
The Field Order and its provisions were revoked by President Johnson’s administration.
January 19, 1865
General William T. Sherman orders his armies to begin to prepare for a march north through the Carolinas.[271]
January 31, 1865
The U.S. House of Representatives achieves two-thirds vote majority on the Thirteenth Amendment, forbidding slavery in the U.S. It reads, “Article XIII, Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” It sends the Amendment to the states for ratification. It is the first to be added since the Twelfth Amendment, of 1803, ratified in 1804.[272] By December 18, the Thirteenth Amendment becomes law.[273]
February 1, 1865
Lincoln approves the resolution to submit the Thirteenth Amendment to the states for ratification.[274]
Crowd serenades Lincoln at the White House in celebration of passage of the Thirteenth Amendment. He addresses crowd.[275]
Illinois ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery. It is the first state to do so.[276]
General Sherman’s two Federal Armies begin their March into South Carolina.[277]
February 3, 1865
President Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton meet aboard the steamboat “River Queen” with Confederate leaders to discuss ending the war. It is called the Hampton Roads Peace Conference. Lincoln calls for unconditional restoration of the Union. Nothing comes of the meeting and the war continues.[278]
Maryland, New York and West Virginia ratify the Thirteenth Amendment.[279]
February 5, 1865
Lincoln proposes to his cabinet a joint resolution of Congress to pay 16 Southern states $100 million pro rata for their slaves to end the war. The cabinet unanimously disapproves of the proposal.[280]
February 7, 1865
Maine and Kansas ratify thirteenth Amendment. Delaware fails to do so.[281]
February 12, 1865
Electoral vote in Presidential race is tallied. Lincoln wins by vote of 212 to 21.[282]
February 17, 1865
Sherman’s Army captures state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina. The city is heavily damaged in a major fire. The cause is disputed.[283]
Charleston, South Carolina, is evacuated by the Confederate Army.[284]
February 20, 1865
The Confederate House of Representatives authorizes the utilization of slaves as soldiers.
February 22, 1865
Tennessee approves new state constitution abolishing slavery. Kentucky state legislature rejects Thirteenth Amendment.[285]
Confederate port city of Wilmington, North Carolina, is captured and occupied by the Union Army.[286]
February 23, 1864
Minnesota state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[287]
March 1, 1865
Wisconsin ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment; New Jersey rejects it.[288]
March 2, 1865
Confederate forces at Waynesborough, Virginia, are routed by General Sheridan’s forces.[289]
March 3, 1865
Congress passes a bill establishing the Bureau of Refugees, Freedman, and Abandoned Lands, under the auspices of the War Department. The Bureau will supervise abandoned lands in the South and will have “control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen from the rebel states.” General Howard would be appointed its head.[290]
President Lincoln signs bill that will emancipate wives and children of African American soldiers.[291]
March 4, 1865
President Lincoln is inaugurated in Washington, DC, for his second term. Andrew Johnson is sworn in as the new Vice President. In his speech, he declares about slavery: “One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war…” He further stated, Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…” He concludes his speech by saying: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”[292]
For the first time, thousands of African Americans attend the inauguration. They cheer the president. Frederick Douglass attends the program.[293]
March 11, 1865
General Sherman’s two Armies capture and occupy Fayetteville, North Carolina. They remain in the city until March 14.[294]
March 13, 1865
The Confederate States Senate authorizes the enlistment of Blacks as soldiers in the Confederate army. The vote passes narrowly, 9 to 8. Blacks are never actually enlisted in the Confederate army.[295]
Confederate President Jefferson Davis signs authorization for recruiting Blacks in the Southern forces. It asks Southerners to “volunteer” their slaves.[296]
March 16, 1865
Major General Henry W. Slocum defeats Confederate forces under General Hardee in the Battle of Averasboro, North Carolina.[297]
March 17, 1865
In a speech to a Union Army regiment, Lincoln remarks: “I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves it should be first for those who desire it for themselves… Whenever [I] hear any one, arguing for slavery I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”[298] Lincoln also commented on the use of Black troops by the Confederacy.
March 19-21, 1865
Union victory of General Sherman’s troops in the Battle of Bentonville, North Carolina. This is the last major engagement in the western Carolinas campaign. Casualties on the Union side are 1,500, and for the Confederates, 2,600.[299]
March 27-28, 1865
President Lincoln meets with his military and naval commanders on the riverboat, River Queen, off City Point, Virginia. They include General Grant, General Sherman, and Admiral Porter. They plan the overall strategy for the last campaigns of the war.[300]
March 29, 1865
Lincoln is at Union Army headquarters at City Point, Virginia.
The final Union campaign begins. The Northern Armies of the Potomac and James begin campaign against Confederate General Lee at Petersburg and Richmond. The total Union strength is 125,000 soldiers.[301]
April 1, 1865
Lincoln remains at Army of the Potomac headquarters.
Union victory for General Sheridan in the Battle of Five Forks, Virginia.[302]
Confederate President Davis writes to Confederate Commander General Lee that he had “been laboring without much progress to advance the raising of negro troops,” and that “the distrust is increasing and embarrasses in many ways.”[303]
April 2, 1865
Lincoln is still with Army headquarters.
Union Army breaks through Confederate defenses in Petersburg, Virginia. Confederate President Jefferson Davis abandons the capital, Richmond. Rebel army burns Richmond.[304] Lincoln telegraphs Grant, “Allow me to tender to you, and all with you, the nation’s grateful thanks for this additional and magnificent success.[305]
Southern mobs loot and burn the Confederate capital. Noted historian James McPherson wrote, “Southerners burned more of their own capital than the enemy had burned of Atlanta or Columbia.”[306]
Selma, Alabama, is captured by Federal forces.[307]
April 3, 1865
Lincoln meets with General Grant in Petersburg.
Union Army enters and occupies Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia.[308] Lincoln telegraphs Secretary of War Stanton, “It is certain now that Richmond is in our hands, and I think I will go there tomorrow. I will take care of myself.[309]
April 4, 1865
President Lincoln tours Richmond. Crowd of recently freed African Americans enthusiastically hails him as “the Great Messiah” and “Father Abraham.” One formerly enslaved individual knelt at Lincoln’s feet and blessed him. A humbled Lincoln said, “Don’t kneel to me. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will enjoy hereafter.”[310] Another Black woman kisses Lincoln’s hand and exclaims, “I know that I am free for I have seen Father Abraham and felt him.”[311]
April 5-8, 1865
Lincoln remains at Union Army headquarters at City Point, Virginia.[312]
April 9, 1865
At 1 p.m., Lee surrenders his Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at the Appomattox courthouse in Virginia.[313]
April 11, 1865
At the White House, Lincoln delivers his last speech before his assassination. He declares support for limited African suffrage in the Southern states.[314]
Lincoln meets with General Benjamin Butler regarding freed slaves.[315]
April 12, 1865
Union Army occupies Mobile, Alabama.[316]
April 14, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC.[317]
General Johnston begins surrender negotiations with General Sherman. The negotiations drag on for two weeks. Except for small engagements, the Civil War is over.
April 15, 1865
At 7:22 a.m., President Lincoln dies. Secretary of War Stanton is present and declares: “Now he belongs to the ages.”[318]
Andrew Johnson is sworn in as President.[319]
April 17-18, 1865
The Confederate Army, under General Joseph E. Johnston, surrenders at Bennett’s Place, outside of Durham, North Carolina. They sign a memorandum regarding the surrender. The terms are rejected by President Johnson.[320]
April 19, 1865
Funeral services for President Lincoln are held in the East Room of the Executive Mansion. Lincoln’s body is escorted to the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. Lincoln lies in state until the evening of April 20.[321]
April 20, 1865
Arkansas state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[322]
April 26, 1865
At Bennett’s Place, near Durham Station, North Carolina, General Johnston signs the revised and less liberal terms of surrender to General Sherman. The terms are approved by General Grant. Johnston’s army of 30,000 solders is surrendered.[323]
May 1865
General Oliver O. Howard is appointed Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau (the U.S. Army’s Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands). He serves in this post until July 1874. The Freedmen’s Bureau was tasked by Congress to help formerly enslaved individuals integrate into American society. The Bureau’s programs included education, the courts and healthcare.
May 4, 1865
Abraham Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois.[324]
May 5, 1865
The Connecticut state legislature ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[325]
May 24, 1865
General Sherman’s army passes in review. Many newly-freed individuals were accorded the honor of participating in the Union victory parade. They accompanied Sherman’s army to the very end of the March.[326]
May 25, 1865
Most of the Union Army is disbanded and soldiers return to their homes.[327]
May 29, 1865
President Andrew Johnson grants amnesty and pardons to all persons (with exceptions) who took part in “the existing rebellion.” Property rights for Southerners were restored, except for slaves. An oath of loyalty is required.[328]
June 6, 1865
Missouri ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery.[329]
June 19, 1865
Slaves in Galveston Bay, Texas, receive the news of the Emancipation Proclamation. There were 200,000 slaves living in the area. They later celebrated the day as “Juneteenth.”
July 1, 1865
New Hampshire ratifies Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery.[330]
July 23, 1865
Abolitionist leader, organizer, activist Arthur Tappan dies. He supported the publication of numerous anti-slavery newspapers, including the Emancipator, the National Era, and the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Reporter.[331]
November 13, 1865
South Carolina ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[332]
December 2, 1865
Alabama ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[333]
December 4, 1865
North Carolina ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment. Mississippi rejects it.[334]
December 5, 1865
Georgia ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[335]
December 11, 1865
Oregon ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment.[336]
December 18, 1865
The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery, is in effect after being approved by 27 states.[337]
December 6, 1865
President Johnson announces that the Union is restored.
December 18, 1865
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, has been ratified by 27 states.[338]
February 19, 1866
The New Freedman’s Bureau Bill is signed into law. This is to care for newly-freed enslaved peoples.[339]
1866
Slavery is abolished in the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
The Ku Klux Klan founded in Pulaski, Tennessee.[340]
General Order #92 of the United States Army creates six African American segregated regiments. Four are infantry regiments and two are cavalry regiments. They serve throughout the period of 1866 through 1890, which is generally called the Indian Wars period. They are called by Native Americans “Buffalo Soldiers.” These include the 9th and 10th Cavalry and, later, the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments.[341]
Three black colleges are established: Fiske University, Nashville, Tennessee; Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri; and Rust College, Holly Springs, Mississippi.[342]
In racial violence, 46 African Americans are killed in Memphis, Tennessee. Seventy-five are injured. Hundreds of African American homes, churches and schools are destroyed.[343]
Thirty-five African Americans are killed in New Orleans, Louisiana. One hundred are wounded.[344]
Congressman Thaddeus Stevens proposes law to distribute land in the South to freedmen in 40-acre lots. It is defeated in the House by a vote of 126 to 37.[345]
February 19, 1866
Congress passes law expanding the authority of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands. President John vetoes the law.
March 16, 1866
Congress passes Civil Rights Act for African Americans. It is vetoed by President Johnson.
April 2, 1866
President Johnson writes, “Now therefore, I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare that the insurrection which heretofore existed in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida is at an end and is henceforth to be so regarded.”[346]
April 9, 1866
The Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress. It officially bestows citizenship upon African American men and grants civil rights to all men born in the United States except Native Americans.[347]
June 16, 1866
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is passed by Congress and submitted to the states for ratification. The Amendment defines national citizenship for African Americans and gives them federal protection.[348]
November 6, 1866
In midterm elections, radical Republicans take many new seats. They now have a two-thirds majority to override President Johnson’s vetoes.
November 20, 1866
General Howard and other individuals meet in Washington to create a theological seminary to train African American clergymen. The institution’s mission is expanded and is renamed the Howard Normal and Theological Institute for the Education of Preachers and Teachers. The school is renamed Howard University on January 8, 1867.
1867
Congress readmits Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina.[349]
African American John W. Menard is elected to the House of Representatives from Louisiana. He is denied the office by the House.[350]
Georgia state legislature declares that African Americans cannot hold office, and dismisses black state members.[351]
William Still organizes a campaign against segregated streetcars in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[352]
The Pullman Palace Car Company allows African Americans to be porters on rail cars in the United States.[353]
Black colleges and universities are founded: Biddle Memorial Institute, Charlotte, North Carolina (later renamed Johnson C. Smith University); Howard University, Washington, DC; Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia; and Talladega College, Talladega, Alabama.[354]
January 8, 1867
African American males are given the right to vote in the District of Columbia. President Johnson vetoes the bill, but both the House of Representatives and the Senate override his veto.[355]
February 7, 1867
The Peabody Education Fund is founded to finance the education of freedmen.[356]
Frederick Douglass meets with President Johnson urging suffrage to all qualified Blacks
March 2, 1867
Congress passes the first Reconstruction Act. The Act divides the South into five military districts occupied by the U.S. Army and subject to martial law. Southern states are required to write new constitutions that guarantee universal suffrage to African American men.[357]
Congress fails to pass legislation that will give land to freedmen.[358]
Congress enfranchises African American men in the District of Columbia.[359]
African American voters are a majority in at least five Southern states.[360]
March 11, 1867
Senator Thaddeus Stevens introduces a slave reparations bill into the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill is defeated.
March 23, 1867
The Second Reconstruction Act is passed by the U.S. Congress. It allows for the registration of Black male voters.
July 19, 1867
The Third Reconstruction Act is passed by Congress, requiring Southern states to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
August 2, 1867
President Johnson removes Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, from office. Congress reviews possibility of charges of impeachment against the President for violating the recent Tenure of Office Act.
1868
North Carolina is readmitted to the Union.[361]
European Americans re-take control of the Georgia state legislature and exclude African American members. As a result, the U.S. Congress denies Georgia’s Congressmen their seats in the House and places Georgia again under martial law.[362]
Francis L. Cardoza, the first African American cabinet officer in a state government, is appointed Secretary of State in South Carolina.[363]
Hampton Institute is founded in Virginia. Knox College is founded in Athens, Georgia. Burwell College is founded in Selma, Alabama. A medical school opens at Howard University.[364]
January 13, 1868
Congress disallows the forced removal from office of Secretary of War Stanton.
January 26, 1868
Abolitionist leader and co-organizer of the American Anti-Slavery Society dies. After 1850, he and his wife, Lucretia Mott, aided fugitive slaves.
February 21, 1868
Despite Congressional law, President Johnson formally removes Secretary of War Stanton from Office.
February 23, 1868
William Edward Burghardt (W. E. B.) DuBois is born in Massachusetts.[365]
February 24, 1868
The House of Representatives votes to institute impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson.[366]
March 11, 1868
United States Congress passes Fourth Reconstruction Act. This will protect Black voters in the South.
March 13, 1868
The U.S. Senate votes against the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, one vote short of the two-thirds majority.[367]
April 30, 1868
Decoration Day (later, Memorial Day) is first commemorated to honor soldiers who died during the Civil War.
June 13, 1868
A formerly enslaved person, Oscar J. Dunn, is elected Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana. It is the highest elective office held by an African American.[368]
April 30, 1868
Decoration Day (later, Memorial Day) is first commemorated to honor soldiers who died during the Civil War.
July 6, 1868
The South Carolina General Assembly opens with a majority of African American lawmakers. There are 88 African Americans and 67 European Americans. It is the only time in U.S. history that an African American majority exists in any state legislature.[369]
July 28, 1868
The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified by the states.[370]
August 11, 1868
Abolitionist and radical Republican U.S. Senator Thaddeus Stevens dies.
November 3, 1868
Former Union Army commander Ulysses S. Grant is elected President of the United States.[371]
1869
The 41st Congress convenes and has two African American representatives. They are Joseph H. Rainey, of South Carolina, and Jefferson F. Long, of Georgia. Hiram R. Revels, of Mississippi, is in the United States Senate.[372]
Frederick Douglass is elected head of the National Convention of Black Leaders.[373]
The American Anti-Slavery Society closes.[374]
February 26, 1869
Congress proposes a Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution. This Amendment goes through 11 different drafts. It forbids states from depriving citizens of the vote because of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.[375]
February 27, 1869
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving voting rights to Black males, is sent to the states for ratification.
March 4, 1969
Ulysses S. Grant is sworn in as President of the United States.[376]
1870
There are 4,880,009 African Americans registered for the 1870 census. They represent 12.7% of the total population of the United States. 93.4% of all African Americans in the country were born in the South.[377]
In February, African American Hiram Revels is elected United States Senator from Mississippi.[378]
African American Johnathan J. Wright is appointed a Justice of the South Carolina State Supreme Court.[379]
African American Joseph H. Rainey is elected to Congress from South Carolina.[380]
February 27, 1869
The Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving voting rights to Black males, is sent to the states for ratification.
March 30, 1870
Ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which gives African American men the franchise to vote.[381]
April 9, 1870
One of the preeminent abolitionist organizations in the U.S., the American Anti-Slavery Society, ceases operation.
May 31, 1870
Ku Klux Klan Act is passed. It is implemented to enforce the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. A second Ku Klux Klan Act is passed on April 20, 1871.[382]
African American literacy rate is 11.4%.[383]
1871
Six African Americans are elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. They are Robert C. de Large, of South Carolina, Robert B. Elliot, of South Carolina, Jefferson F. Long, of Georgia, J. H. Rainey, R. S. Turner, of Alabama, and Josiah T. Walls, of Florida.[384]
Thirty-eight out of 150 members of the Mississippi state legislature are African American.[385]
The state of Virginia reapportions its election districts in order to limit the impact of African American votes.[386]
A race riot takes place in Meridian, Mississippi.[387]
The Report of the Congressional Investigating Committee on the Ku Klux Klan is published. It studies nine counties in South Carolina during a six-month period. It reports that the Klan lynched 35 men, whipped 262 men and women, and destroyed the property of 101 African Americans. In addition, the Klan murdered 74 men in Georgia and 109 in Alabama between 1868 and 1871.[388]
January 25, 1871
Thomas Garrett, abolitionist and rescuer of hundreds of fugitive slaves, dies.
March 4, 1871
Forty-second Congress convenes in Washington. It includes five African American members. They include Robert Carlos De Large, Robert B. Elliot, Joseph H. Rainey, Benjamin S. Turner, and Josiah T. Walls.
April 20, 1871
Congress passes the Second Force Act (Ku Klux Klan Act).
December 11, 1871
Congress enacts law prohibiting any United States citizen from engaging in the slave trade in any foreign country.
1872
Black abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad William Still publishes landmark book, The Underground Railroad.
May 22, 1872
Congress passes the Amnesty Act. It restores civil and political rights to former Confederate soldiers and leaders.
September 30, 1872
Noted Black clergyman, anti-slavery activist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, Jermain Westly Loguen, dies.
November 5, 1872
Ulysses S. Grant is reelected President of the United States and names abolitionist Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, as his Vice President.[389]
1873
Forty-Third Congress convenes in Washington. Five Black Congressmen are reelected, along with Civil War hero Robert Smalls, representing South Carolina.
January 16, 1873
Abolitionist leader, clergyman, newspaper editor Joshua Leavitt dies.
June 21, 1873
Abolitionist leader, organizer, activist Lewis Tappan dies. He is co-founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society and New York Anti-Slavery Society, and other groups.[390]
December 22, 1873
Charles Lenox Remond, Black abolitionist leader, dies.
December 23, 1873
Abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, Sarah Grimké, dies.
March 11, 1874
Abolitionist leader and Massachusetts Senator, Charles Sumner, dies.
September 18, 1874
Abolitionist leader, journalist, editor, educator and political leader, David Lee Child, dies. He helped found the New England Anti-Slavery Society on January 6, 1832.[391]
November 1874
Democratic Party takes control of the U.S. House of Representatives, gaining 85 seats.
December 28, 1874
Gerrit Smith, anti-slavery leader, philanthropist and reformer, dies. He helped co-found the anti-slavery Liberty Party, aided fugitive slaves, and served as an anti-slavery congressman, 1853-1854. He supported radical abolitionist John Brown.[392]
1875
U.S. Supreme Court rules in the case of U.S. v. Cruikshank. It dilutes the Fifteenth Amendment for African Americans. It states, “The right of suffrage was not a necessary attribute of national citizenship.” Further, “the right to vote is the states comes from the states.”
March 1875
Six African American congressmen take their seats in the forty-fourth Congress in Washington.
March 1, 1875
The U.S. Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875. It guarantees access to public places for all African Americans. Further, it allows Blacks to serve on juries. The law is reversed and ruled unconstitutional in 1883 by the Supreme Court.[393]
March 15, 1875
Second African American elected to the United States Senate. Blanche K. Bruce becomes a member of the upper house.
March 8, 1876
African American P.B.S. Pinchback is denied his seat after being elected U.S. Senator from Louisiana.
July 8 – October 26, 1876
Racial violence in South Carolina causes the Federal Government to send in U.S. soldiers.
November 7, 1876
Presidential elections are held. There is, however, no winner due to disputed vote counts. On January 29, 1877, a Congressional Electoral Commission decides that Republican Rutherford B. Hayes will be the President.
March 2, 1877
Republican and Democratic leaders agree on the Compromise of 1877. The terms allow Republican Rutherford B. Hayes to become president if Republicans remove Federal troops from the South and appoint Southern leaders to the Supreme Court and the Presidential cabinet.[394]
April 10-24, 1877
All federal troops are withdrawn from Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina. This is considered to be the end of the Reconstruction era.[395]
September 16, 1877
Abolitionist and major activist in the Underground Railroad, Levi B. Coffin, dies. He helped more than 3,000 individuals to escape slavery.
October 14, 1879
Abolitionist leader, activist, conductor on the Underground Railroad, Francis Le Moyne, dies.
October 26, 1879
Abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, Angelina Grimké, dies.
December 17, 1879
Maria W. Miller Stewart, African American anti-slavery activist, teacher and community organizer, dies.
1879
Between 20,000 and 40,000 African Americans leave the South to make homesteads in Kansas. They are largely turned back.[396]
1880
There are 6,580,793 African Americans registered for the 1880 census. They represent 13.1% of the total population of the United States. Seventy-five percent of African Americans live in the former Confederate states. The African American populations of those states are: South Carolina, 60.7%; Mississippi, 57.5%; Louisiana, 51.5%; Alabama, 47.5%; Florida, 47%; Georgia, 47%; Virginia, 41.8%; North Carolina, 37.9%; Arkansas, 26.3%; Tennessee, 26.2%; Texas, 24.7%. 12% of African Americans are reported to be of mixed race. 93.3% of all African Americans in the country were born in the South.[397]
African American literacy rate is 30%, an 18.6% increase from 1870.[398]
The United States Supreme Court rules in the case, Strauder v. West Virginia, that African Americans cannot be excluded from service on juries.
November 2, 1880
James A. Garfield, formerly an abolitionist and Union General, is elected President of the United States. Garfield is assassinated on July 2, 1881. On September 20, Vice President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in as President.[399]
November 11, 1880
Lucretia Coffin Mott, abolitionist and women’s rights leader, dies. Co-founded the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, and Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women.[400]
1881
Robert Smalls, of South Carolina, and John R. Lynch, of Mississippi, are the only African Americans elected to the 47th U.S. Congress.[401]
First Jim Crow law segregating railroad accommodations is passed by the Tennessee legislature.[402]
July 4, 1881
The Tuskegee Normal School for Colored Teachers is founded by local Black leader and Republican Lewis Adams. It later becomes the Tuskegee Institute and Tuskegee University.
1882
Lane College, in Jackson, Tennessee, is founded by the Colored Methodist Church.[403]
Forty-Eight African Americans are lynched in 1882.[404]
Between 1882 and 1968, three quarters of people killed by mob violence in the United States are African American. During this period, 3,446 African Americans are killed in this way.[405]
February 13, 1882
Henry Highland Garnet, Black anti-slavery leader and activist, dies.
May 6, 1882
Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, restricting Chinese immigration to the United States.[406]
1883
The Supreme Court, dominated by Republicans, declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional. The Court rules that the Act was beyond the powers granted to Congress in the Reconstruction amendments.[407]
African Americans Robert Smalls, of South Carolina, and James E. O’Hara, of North Carolina, are elected to the 48th Congress of the United States.
Maine and Michigan repeal anti-miscegenation laws.[408]
Fifty-two African Americans are lynched in 1883.[409]
1884
Paine College, in Augusta, Georgia, is founded by the Southern Methodist Episcopal Church.[410]
Fifty African Americans are lynched in 1884.[411]
November 26, 1883
Sojourner Truth, African American abolitionist, preacher, reformer and suffragist, dies.
February 2, 1884
Wendell Phillips, abolitionist leader, reformer, lawyer, dies.
August 1, 1884
Sarah Pugh, abolitionist leader and women’s rights activist, dies. She was active in numerous anti-slavery societies.
November 4, 1884
Grover Cleveland is elected President of the United States.[412]
November 6, 1884
Former slave, abolitionist leader and writer, William Wells Brown, dies.
1885
African Americans Robert Smalls, of South Carolina, and James E. O’Hara, of North Carolina, are elected to the 49th Congress of the United States.[413]
Seventy-four African Americans are lynched in 1885.
July 12, 1885
Abolitionist leader, journalist, editor, Maria Weston Chapman, dies.
1885-1889
Between 1885 and 1889, only two African Americans receive doctoral degrees, compared to 347 European Americans.[414]
Morris Brown University, in Atlanta, Georgia, is founded by the African Negro Methodist Episcopal Church.[415]
1886
Seventy-four African Americans are lynched in 1886.
March 18, 1886
Abolitionist leader and clergyman John Rankin dies.[416]
1887
Florida passes Jim Crow law segregating railroad coaches.[417]
Ohio repeals its anti-miscegenation laws.[418]
The first African American baseball team, the Union Giants, is founded in Chicago by Frank Peters.[419]
January 14, 1887
Abolitionist leader, women’s rights activist, writer, Abigail Foster Kelly, dies. She lectured and organized anti-slavery societies.
March 8, 1887
Anti-slavery leader and activist clergyman Henry Ward Beecher dies. He supported the Kansas Immigrant Aid Society and the Free Soilers in Kansas. He also supported radical abolitionist John Brown.[420]
August 17, 1887
Marcus Garvey is born in Jamaica.
1888
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge proposes a new Force Act to protect African Americans living in the South. The Act is turned down by Congress.[421]
Mississippi establishes separate waiting rooms in railroad stations for blacks and whites.[422]
Sixty-nine African Americans are lynched in 1888.[423]
November 6, 1888
Benjamin Harrison is elected President of the United States, over incumbent Cleveland.[424]
1889
African Americans H. P. Cheatham, of North Carolina, Thomas E. Miller, of South Carolina, and J. M. Langston, of Virginia, are elected to the 51st U.S. Congress.[425]
Texas passes Jim Crow laws.[426]
Ninety-two African Americans are lynched in 1889.[427]
April 15, 1889
Asa Phillip Randolph, African American union leader, is born in Crescent City, Florida.[428]
December 10, 1889
Oliver Johnson, abolitionist leader, reformer, dies. He aided William Lloyd Garrison in editing The Liberator. He also edited the Anti-Slavery Bugle, the Pennsylvania Freeman, and the National Anti-Slavery Standard.
December 13, 1889
Noted abolitionist, clergyman, Luther Lee, dies.
1890
There are 7,488,676 African Americans registered for the 1890 census. They represent 11.9% of the total population of the United States. 15.2% of African Americans are reported to be of mixed race. 92.5% of all African Americans in the country were born in the South. The mortality rate for African Americans is 32.4%, as opposed to 20.2% for Americans of European ancestry.[429]
Mississippi legislature passes a new state constitution that includes poll taxes and literary tests aimed at disenfranchising African American voters.
Louisiana passes new Jim Crow law.[430]
Ben Tillman is elected Governor of South Carolina. He is known as a demagogic hater of African Americans.[431]
Eighty-five African Americans were lynched in 1890.[432]
August 1890
The Mississippi Constitutional Convention meets to rewrite the original 1868 Reconstruction Constitution. Although African Americans comprise 56.9% of the population of Mississippi, only one African American represents the population at the convention; 133 European American representatives attend.[433]
December 29, 1890
U.S. Army kills members of the Teton Sioux tribe in the Battle of Wounded Knee in the Black Hills of South Dakota. This marks the end of the Indian Wars period.[434]
1891
Henry Cheatham, from North Carolina, is the only African American to serve in the 52nd U.S. Congress.[435]
Alabama begins segregating railroads.[436]
Georgia becomes the first state to segregate streetcars.[437]
One hundred twelve African Americans are lynched in 1891.[438]
January 7, 1891
Zora Neale Hurston, noted African American novelist and author of short stories, is born in Eatonville, Florida.
1892
There are 160 lynchings of African Americans in 1892. Between 1882 and 1892, 1,400 African Americans are lynched.[439]
President Benjamin Harrison presents a bill before Congress to prevent lynching of foreign nationals.[440]
Fifteen African Americans are murdered by European American Democrats during the Georgia gubernatorial elections.[441]
March 9, 1892
Ida B. Wells begins her journalistic career investigating lynchings in the South. She later states, “Nowhere in the civilized world, save the United States, do men go out in bands to hunt down, shoot, hang to death a single individual.” Wells later chairs the anti-lynching bureau of the National African American Council and is one of the co-founders of the NAACP.[442]
September 2, 1892
Abolitionist poet and writer, John Greenleaf Whittier, dies. He was one of the co-organizers of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society.
November 8, 1892
Grover Cleveland is elected President of the United States, over Benjamin Harrison.[443]
1893
African American Representative George W. Murray, of South Carolina, is elected to the 53rd U.S. Congress.[444]
Arkansas segregates railroad waiting rooms.[445]
The American Federation of Labor (AFL), at its national convention, unanimously adopts a resolution “affirming unity of labor regardless of race.”[446]
One hundred seventeen African Americans are lynched in 1893.[447]
October 18, 1893
Lucy Stone, abolitionist, women’s rights advocate, dies.
1894
Numerous labor unions exclude African Americans from membership. These include the American Railway Union, the Brotherhood of Boilermakers and Iron Shipbuilders, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the International Association of Machinists.[448]
W. E. B. DuBois is awarded a Ph.D. by Harvard University. He is the first African American to receive the degree from Harvard.[449]
One hundred thirty-five African Americans are lynched in 1894.[450]
February 8, 1894
U.S. Congress repeals an important Reconstruction act, the Enforcement Act of 1870. The repeal of this Act allows some states to disenfranchise African American voters.[451]
1895
Florida enacts law requiring segregation of both private and public schools. This law imposes fines on teachers, administrators, and parents who violate the law.[452]
South Carolina revises its state Reconstruction Constitution of 1868. The new Constitution disenfranchises most African Americans. It requires payment of all taxes, educational tests or property ownership, a poll tax, and a minimum of two years residence in the state.[453]
African American George Washington Murray is re-elected to the U.S. Congress. While in Congress, Murray called for improved opportunities for African Americans.[454]
One hundred twelve African Americans are lynched in 1895.[455]
February 20, 1895
Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) dies in Washington, DC, at his Anacostia Heights home.[456]
1896
Louisiana adopts literacy, property and poll taxes, aimed at disenfranchising African Americans. These measures, along with the “grandfather clause” of 1898, drastically reduce the number of registered black voters in the state between 1896 and 1904 from 130,334 to 1,342. (By 1900, there were only 5,320 African Americans registered to vote.)[457]
W. E. B. DuBois publishes his Ph.D. dissertation, entitled The Suppression of the African Slave Trade to the U.S.A., 1638-1870. It is part of a series on African American life.
Seventy-seven African Americans are lynched in 1896. In protest, the Republican party writes, “We proclaim our unqualified condemnation of the uncivilized and preposterous practice well-known as lynching, and the killing of human beings suspected or charged with crimes without due process of law.” [458]
May 18, 1896
The United States Supreme Court upholds Louisiana Jim Crow law in the ruling Plessy v. Ferguson. Louisiana required segregation of railroad coaches. The Supreme Court ruled that as long as the facilities were equal, segregation did not in fact constitute discrimination. This introduces the “separate but equal” doctrine.[459]
July 1896
In Washington, DC, the National League of Colored Women and the National Federation of Afro-American Women combine to form the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).[460] Its publication is National Notes.
July 1, 1896
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, dies. She hid fugitive slaves in her home.
1897
African American G. H. White, of North Carolina, is elected to the 55th U.S. Congress.[461]
By the end of 1897, 7,372 court cases have been tried under the Reconstruction Enforcement Acts. There were 5,172 court cases in the South and 2,200 in the North. Only 1,432 resulted in a conviction.[462]
Arkansas adopts the “white primary.” This is a primary election in which only white persons may vote. It was enforced in the South.[463]
One hundred twenty-three African Americans are lynched in 1897.[464]
November 3, 1897
William McKinley is elected President of the United States.[465]
1898
The United States’ battleship Maine explodes in Havana harbor, killing 260 sailors on February 15. In response, the United States declares war on Spain. It is called the Spanish-American War. The United States sends naval forces and the U.S. Army to Cuba and the Philippine Islands. The Philippine Insurrection takes place between 1898 and 1902. The United States annexes Hawaii in 1898. Thousands of African Americans are sent to fight both in Cuba and in the Philippines. African American infantry troops in the Philippines object to the racist treatment of Filipinos by the U.S. Armed Forces.[466]
The 9th and 10th Black Cavalry regiments support Teddy Roosevelt’s charge up San Juan Hill and saves the Rough Riders during the battle. The 25th Black Infantry captures the Spanish fort in the battle of El Caney. In Roosevelt’s memoirs, he does not give these regiments credit for the success of the Rough Riders in San Juan Hill.[467]
Six African Americans receive the Medal of Honor during the campaign in Cuba.[468]
In Williams v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court upholds the Mississippi constitution of 1890, which imposed poll taxes and literary tests on African Americans. The Mississippi statues are called the “Mississippi plan.” Between 1890 and 1908, ten southern states approve new constitutions that disenfranchise African Americans.[469]
Georgia adopts a “white primary.” This action leads to other Southern states adopting the “white primary” as well.[470]
In Wilmington, North Carolina, following a successful election of white supremacists, 400 European Americans invade the African American section of the city; they kill and injure numerous African Americans.[471]
Segregation laws regarding public transportation are strengthened throughout the South.[472]
The state of Louisiana adds a “grandfather clause” to its state constitution. This exempts European Americans from stringent voter regulations.[473]
One hundred and one African Americans are lynched in 1898.[474]
1899
African American G. H. White, of North Carolina, is re-elected to the 56th U.S. Congress.[475]
North Carolina passes legislation to segregate railroads in the state.[476]
Eighty-five African Americans are lynched in 1899.[477]
December 12, 1899
Anti-slavery activist and women’s rights leader, Elizabeth Buffum Chase, dies.
1900
There are 8,833,994 African Americans registered for the 1900 census. They represent 11.6% of the total population of the United States. 89.7% of African Americans live in the South. In a number of cities in the American South, African Americans outnumber European Americans. Among them are: Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Vicksburg, Mississippi; Shreveport, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Montgomery, Alabama; and Jacksonville, Florida. This represents more than one third of the total Southern population. The life expectancy of African Americans is approximately 34 years, in contrast to the life expectancy for European Americans of 48 years.[478]
In New Orleans, European Americans attack African Americans, burning and robbing their homes and businesses for three days.[479]
Virginia enforces segregation on railroads and steamships.[480]
Booker T. Washington founds the National Negro Business League in Boston. It is incorporated in 1901. It supports and promotes African Americans in business. It has 300 chapters in 1905, and grows to 600 chapters by 1915. In 1966, it changes its name to the National Business League.[481]
W. E. B. DuBois is appointed Secretary of the First Pan-African Conference in London, England.[482]
The African American newspaper The Colored American Magazine begins publication in Boston. It runs until 1909.[483]
Booker T. Washington publishes Up from Slavery.[484]
One hundred five African Americans are lynched in 1900.[485]
1900-1930
This is called the “Golden Age of Black Businesses.” The number of African American owned businesses doubles from 20,000 in 1900 to 40,000 in 1914. African Americans are prosperous in middle-class businesses, including retail enterprises.[486]
January 29, 1900
Former slave and abolitionist writer and activist William Craft dies.
January 20, 1900
African American Congressman George H. White introduces bill that proposes to make lynching a federal crime. The bill dies in committee.[487]
November 6, 1900
William McKinley is elected for a second term as President of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt is elected Vice President.[488]
1901
Booker T. Washington has dinner with President Roosevelt in the White House. This is the first time an African American has dined with a President. Roosevelt is heavily criticized.[489]
George Forbes and William Monroe Trotter found the militant African American newspaper, The Boston Guardian.[490]
Tennessee and Florida Democrats adopt “white primaries.”[491]
African American Congressman George H. White ends his second term. The next African American will be elected in 1928.[492]
Virginia and North Carolina institute segregation on streetcars.[493]
Alabama adopts a “grandfather clause” in its voting laws.[494]
One hundred thirty African Americans are lynched in 1901.[495]
1901-1908
President Theodore Roosevelt begins his administration. He institutes a system of segregating federal employees in Washington, DC.
September 6, 1901
President McKinley is assassinated while attending the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He succumbs on September 14 and Roosevelt is sworn in as the 26the President.[496]
1902
Philanthropist John D. Rockefeller founds the General Education Board to help finance black education and the training of African American teachers. By 1908, he will donate more than 50 million dollars to the Board.[497]
Suzie King Taylor, the first African American nurse in the U.S. Army, publishes Reminiscences of my Life in Camp with the Colored Troops.[498]
Alabama and Mississippi Democrats institute “white primaries.”[499]
Eighty-five African Americans are lynched in 1902.[500]
July 14, 1902
William Still, African American abolitionist, activist, writer, dies. He was active in aiding fugitive slaves in Philadelphia. He published his book, The Underground Railroad, in 1872.
1903
Albany State College (now Albany State University) is founded in Albany, Georgia. Utica Junior College is founded in Utica, Mississippi.[501]
W. E. B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk.[502]
Benjamin J. Davis, Sr., establishes militant African American weekly newspaper, The Independent.[503]
Arkansas, South Carolina and Tennessee institute segregation on streetcars.[504]
A federal court in Arkansas decides, in United States v. Morris, that a law discriminating against African Americans in housing is unconstitutional.[505]
Ninety-nine African Americans are lynched in 1903.[506]
July 22, 1903
Abolitionist and political leader, Cassius Marcellus Clay, dies.
1904
By 1904, African American voters have been disenfranchised in virtually every Southern state.[507]
In Springfield, Ohio, a mob of European Americans attacks the African American section of the town. Many African Americans are seriously injured.[508]
In Statesboro, Georgia, a riot breaks out in which a number of African Americans are killed or seriously beaten. A number of homes are burned and African Americans flee for their lives. No legal action is taken against the attacking mob.[509]
In Berea College v. The Commonwealth of Kentucky, the Court of Appeals upholds segregation in schools, both public and private.[510]
Maryland and Mississippi institute segregation on streetcars.[511]
South Carolina institutes segregation on its ferries.[512]
Mary McLeod Bethune founds the Daytona Normal and Industrial School, later the Bethune Kookman College, in Florida.[513]
The Voice of the Negro is founded in Atlanta by African American journalist Max Barber and John W. E. Bowen, Sr. It is moved to Chicago in 1906 and ceases publication in 1907.[514]
Andrew Carnegie sponsors a meeting of prominent African American leaders. At the meeting, the Committee of 12 for the Advancement of the Interests of the Negro Race is established. The Committee of 12 has limited success in a number of advocacy projects.[515]
In Atlanta, Augusta, Columbia, Houston, Mobile and New Orleans, African Americans protest Jim Crow laws on public transportation. They boycott streetcar companies.[516]
Eighty-three African Americans are lynched in 1904.[517]
November 8, 1904
Theodore Roosevelt is elected President of the United States.[518]
1905
W. E. B. DuBois establishes and serves as editor in chief of the Moon Illustrated Weekly, later known as The Crisis. It is an African American magazine.[519]
The Committee for Improving Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York is founded.[520]
The National League for Protection of Colored Women is established in New York. It is founded by Mrs. William Baldwin and Francis Kellor. It has officers in Baltimore, New York, Norfolk, Virginia, and Philadelphia.[521]
The African American community of Nashville, Tennessee, begins a streetcar boycott in opposition to segregation in public transportation.[522]
Alonzo F. Herndon founds the Atlanta Life Insurance Company in Atlanta, Georgia. The Atlanta Life and North Carolina Mutual Insurance companies are the two largest African American owned companies in the United States.[523]
Twenty-eight African American banks are founded between 1899 and 1905.[524]
Florida segregates its streetcars.[525]
Georgia segregates its public parks. It is the first state to do so.[526]
May 5, 1905
The African American newspaper The Chicago Defender begins publishing. It is founded by Robert S. Abbott. It soon becomes one of the most prominent African American newspapers. By 1921, it has a circulation of more than 250,000.[527]
July 11-13, 1905
The Niagara Movement is founded in Niagara, New York. It is a precursor of the NAACP. It is the first attempt to organize Blacks after Reconstruction. They issue a declaration of principles: “We believe that Negroes should protest emphatically and continually against the curtailment of their political rights. We believe in manhood suffrage; we believe that no man is so good, intelligent or wealthy as to be entrusted wholly with the welfare of his neighbor.” Within three years, the Movement will have earned the support of many African Americans, including such groups as the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and the Equal Suffrage League.[528]
1906
President Theodore Roosevelt orders the court martial of an entire battalion of African American soldiers of the 25th Infantry. They are found guilty of mutiny and are dishonorably discharged and removed from the service. They are later exonerated by the Department of the Army. This is known as the Brownsville Incident and takes place in Brownsville, Texas.[529]
William Monroe Trotter protests the discharges of African American soldiers of the 24th Infantry.[530]
Madame C. J. Walker establishes an African American haircare business in Denver, Colorado. She becomes the first African American woman millionaire in the United States.[531]
The Solvent Savings Bank and Trust Company, in Memphis, Tennessee, is founded by African American Robert Church, Sr., a formerly enslaved individual. It becomes the largest African American owned bank and Church is credited with becoming the first black millionaire.[532]
African American U.S. Army Chaplain Allen Allensworth (1842-1914) is promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. This is the highest rank held by a black person in the military.[533]
The second meeting of the Niagara Falls Movement is held in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. It commemorates abolitionist John Brown’s raid. W. E. B. DuBois writes a statement on continuing racism: “Stripped of verbose subterfuge, and in its naked nastiness, the new American creed says: feat to let black men even try to rise lest they become equals of the white. And this in the land that professes to follow Jesus Christ. The blasphemy of such a course is only matched by its cowardice.”[534]
The Equal Rights Association is founded in Macon, Georgia, by William Jefferson White.[535]
Montgomery, Alabama, city ordinance calls for separate streetcars for African Americans.[536]
In Louisiana, Democratic Party adopts the “white primary.”[537]
African American communities in Austin, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, and Savannah, Georgia, organize their own streetcar companies.[538]
Sixty-five African Americans are lynched in 1906.[539]
March 13, 1906
Susan Brownell Anthony, American civil rights leader and abolitionist, dies.
September 22-24, 1906
Major race riots break out in Atlanta, Georgia, Springfield, Ohio, and Greensburg, Indiana. In Atlanta, the largest, four African American leaders are killed, 12 others are killed, and numerous individuals are seriously injured. African American houses are burned or looted. As a result, the Atlanta Civic League is created to improve race relations.[540]
1907
The Negro Rural School Fund, known as the Geanes Fund, is founded by philanthropist Anna Geanes. It is established to improve rural education for Southern African Americans.[541]
Alain Locke graduates from Harvard College magna cum laude. He becomes the first African American Rhodes Scholar.[542]
Prentiss Normal and Industrial Institute is founded in Mississippi.[543]
The Colored Woman’s Magazine begins publication. It will become one of the longest-running periodicals controlled by African American women.[544]
Mercy Hospital, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is established by Henry Minton, Eugene T. Hinson, and Algernon B. Jackson. It will train numerous African American doctors.[545]
Harlem Hospital opens in New York. It gives medical care to African Americans.[546]
Leaders of the Niagara Movement convene in Boston, Massachusetts. Supporting organizations include the New England Suffrage League and the Equal Rights League of Georgia.[547]
Sixty African Americans are lynched in 1907.[548]
1908
In Berea College v. Kentucky, the Supreme Court upholds a Kentucky statute that prevented Berea College, a private school founded in 1856, from teaching African American and Caucasian students together. The Plessy and Berea Supreme Court rulings give blanket approval for the Jim Crow laws.[549]
Morris College is founded in Sumter, South Carolina.[550]
At Howard University in Washington, the first African American Greek letter sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, is founded.[551]
The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses is founded. It helps African American nurses improve conditions, find employment, and aid black-operated nursing schools.[552]
Jack Johnson becomes the first African American heavyweight champion of the world. Until this time, blacks were not allowed to compete in the heavyweight division.[553]
John Baxter Taylor becomes the first African American Olympic gold medal winner. He is a member of the 1,600-meter relay team at the London Olympics.[554]
Colonel Allen Allensworth founds all-African American town called Allensworth in Tulare County, California.[555]
The final meeting of the Niagara Movement is held in Oberlin, Ohio.[556]
Ida B. Wells founds and becomes the first President of the Negro Fellowship League.[557]
A meeting of 25 prominent African American bishops, representing the African Methodist Episcopal Zion, the Colored Methodist Episcopal, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is convened in Washington, DC. They call for the end of mob violence against African Americans, Jim Crow, and the violations of African American civil rights. They state: “We do not ask at your hands any special favors… we ask … nothing to which we are not entitled under the law and Constitution. We ask only for that which belongs to us as a right, for justice, for equality, for freedom of action and opportunity before the law and in the industrial life of the land, North and South alike.”[558]
Ninety-seven African Americans are lynched in 1908.[559]
August 14-15, 1908
Major riot against African Americans breaks out in Springfield, Illinois. African American homes and businesses are burned and destroyed by white mobs. Two African Americans are lynched, six killed, and 70 African American and white individuals are injured. Most of the leaders of the assault are not punished. The white community starts a political and economic boycott to force out remaining members of the African American community.[560]
November 3, 1908
William Howard Taft is elected President of the United States.[561]
1909
The President of Harvard University, Charles W. Eliot, calls for complete segregation of the races and expresses support for existing Jim Crow laws.[562]
Eighty-two African Americans are lynched in 1909.[563]
February 12, 1909
Centennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
June 1, 1909
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded in New York City. It is created on the centennial commemoration of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and in response to the Springfield, Illinois, race riots of 1908. It remains one of the leading African American civil rights organizations in the United States. Among its purposes are to bring awareness to lynchings of African Americans in the South, and to bring about equal civil, political and education rights, an end to segregation, and right to work protections for African Americans. It also calls for the enforcement of the 14th and 15th amendments. It is created by both black and white community leaders, including W. E. B. DuBois and Oswald Garrison Villard. It will be formally founded in May 1910.[564]
December 4, 1909
African American newspaper, the Amsterdam News, begins publication in New York City. It is founded by James Henry Anderson. It is still in publication.[565]
1910
There are 9,827,763 African Americans registered for the 1910 census. They represent 10.7% of the total population of the United States. 10.7% of African Americans are reported to be of mixed race. Eight out of nine African Americans live in the South. Twenty-five percent of African Americans live in cities. Of these, 60.4% live in the central area of that city. 94,000 African Americans live in Washington, DC. 92,000 African Americans live in New York City, which is 1.9% of the city. The life expectancy of African American males is 34 years, and for African American females is 38 years.[566]
There are 100 African American colleges in the United States. Most have both women and men attending.[567]
Baltimore, Maryland, Louisville, Kentucky, Norfolk, Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, Roanoke, Virginia, Greensboro, South Carolina, St. Louis, Missouri, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Dallas, Texas, enact Jim Crow segregation laws.[568]
The NAACP challenges racial segregation in residential districts. It is declared unconstitutional.[569]
Oklahoma adds “grandfather clause” to its state constitution.[570]
Twice as much is spent on white students than on black students in Southern states.[571]
The College Alumnae Club is founded by Sarah Winnifred Brown and Mary Church Terrell to help graduates of African American colleges who are denied membership in all-white associations.[572]
The formal organization of the NAACP is completed. Moorfield Storey, an activist from Boston, is elected President. W. E. B. DuBois is the only African American on the Board of Directors. By 1912, nine offices are established. Between 1910 and 1914, the NAACP widely publicizes lynchings of African Americans. It further plans to hire attorneys to challenge racial laws.[573]
African American newspaper editor and civil rights activist William Monroe Trotter protests the racist play, The Klansman.[574]
North Carolina Central University is established in Durham, North Carolina.[575]
There are 35,000 African American churches with 3.5 million parishioners.[576]
July 4, 1910
African American heavyweight champion Jack Johnson defeats retired heavyweight champion James Jeffries in the world’s heavyweight championship in Reno, Nevada. A fight breaks out, in which whites kill and injure several African Americans attending the match. Films of the fight are banned throughout the United States.[577]
September 29, 1910
The National Urban League is founded to help African American migrants to cities. It is founded by Ruth Standish Baldwin and Dr. George Edmund Haynes, among others. It is originally called the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. In 1911, it merges with the National League for the Protection of Colored Women.[578]
November 1910
The Crisis magazine, the paper of the NAACP, begins publication. W. E. B. DuBois is the editor.[579]
1911
The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) is established by Marcus Garvey in Jamaica.[580]
The Negro Society for Historical Research, later called the Schomburg Center, is founded in New York.[581]
W. E. B. DuBois joins the Socialist Party.[582]
U.S. Supreme Court case Bailey v. Alabama declares peonage unconstitutional.[583]
The John F. Slater Fund begins support of county training schools for African Americans.[584]
The Phelps-Stokes Fund is established, after the death of Carolyn Phelps-Stokes. It is for the “education of Negroes, both in Africa and in the U.S., and of North American Indians and of needy and deserving white students.”[585]
Noted professor of anthropology at Columbia University in New York Franz Boas publishes The Mind of Primitive Man. It denies the superiority of any race.[586]
Sixty-seven African Americans are lynched in 1911.[587]
May 9, 1911
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, prominent abolitionist, women’s rights activist, author and Union Civil War officer who commanded USCT, dies.
1912
The NAACP has eleven branches and 1,100 members. Oswald Garrison Villard is chosen Chairman of the Board of Directors.[588]
The NAACP desegregates New York theaters.[589]
African American ghettoes become sanctioned by law in numerous parts of the country. Housing segregation laws are passed in Louisville, Kentucky, Baltimore, Maryland, Richmond, Virginia, and later Atlanta, Georgia.[590]
The Negro Year Book begins publication.[591]
Sixty-three African Americans are lynched in 1912.[592]
March 17, 1912
Bayard Rustin, African American civil rights leader and activist, is born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[593]
November 5, 1912
Woodrow Wilson is elected President of the United States. Wilson is supported by NAACP, the National Independent League, and the Colored National Democratic League. W. E. B. DuBois also supports Wilson. During the campaign, Wilson had declared a wish for: “justice done to the colored people in every matter; and not mere grudging justice, but justice with liberality and cordial good feeling.” He further stated: “I want to assure [African Americans] that should I become President of the U.S., they may count on me for absolute fair dealing, for everything by which I could assist in advancing the interests of their race in the U.S.” After the election, Congress proposes legislation to segregate African American civil servants in federal and public offices. It also proposes legislation to exclude African Americans from Army and Navy commissions, and to prohibit immigration of persons of African descent. Most of this legislation fails to pass. Nonetheless, Wilson segregates African American federal employees by executive order. Oswald Garrison Villard asks President Wilson to establish a National Race Commission to study African American issues; Wilson refuses.[594]
1913
A depression in cotton prices occurs throughout the South.[595]
The National Negro Retail Merchants Association is founded.[596]
The National Alliance of Postal Workers is founded.[597]
The Julius Rosenwald Fund is established by Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears and Roebuck Company. It donates more than five million dollars for African American colleges and scholarships for African Americans.[598]
Democrats in Virginia adopt the “white primary.”[599]
Fifty-two African Americans are lynched in 1913.[600]
March 10, 1913
Harrier Tubman (c. 1821-1913), born into slavery, who was a conductor on the Underground Railroad and abolitionist, Union spy and nurse, dies in Auburn, New York.
1914
Marcus Garvey founds the United Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Its aim is to unite people of African descent. Later, it will include the African Legion and the Black Cross Nurses.[601]
Journalist and editor Monroe Trotter leads a delegation to the White House to meet with President Wilson to protest segregation. Wilson ends the meeting abruptly.[602]
The NAACP has 50 branches and 6,000 members.[603]
The National Negro Business League reports that there are 40,000 African American businesses in the United States.[604]
Fifty-five African Americans are lynched in 1914.[605]
1914-1919
United States economy experiences a war boom due to orders for war material by the Allies. The peak of this activity is 1916.[606]
March 1, 1914
African American author Ralph Ellison (1914-1994) is born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
June 1914
World War I begins in Europe. The United States declares its neutrality.
1915-1970
This is called the era of the Great Migration for African Americans out of the rural South to the urban Northeast, Midwest and West. More than six million blacks leave the American South during this period. They are seeking to escape racial violence and prejudice against them in the rural South. They are also seeking employment opportunities that open up during World War I and World War II. By the end of this era, only 53% of African Americans will remain in the South. 40% will live in the North, 7% in the West.[607]
1915
D. W. Griffith’s epic movie, “The Birth of a Nation,” is released. It is based on a racist book entitled, The Klansman. The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) is depicted in a positive light and it sparks a revival of the racist anti-Black, anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic organization. Inspired by the movie, the KKK is re-established at a meeting in Stone Mountain, Georgia, in November. By the 1920s, it is reported to have five million members throughout the country.[608]
The NAACP and other black organizations try to have showings of “The Birth of a Nation” banned. Efforts are initially unsuccessful. Three years later, the NAACP has the film banned in several states.[609]
The NAACP hires two staff members to monitor anti-African American bills proposed by Congress. Early in the year, six bills calling for segregation in Washington, DC, are introduced. The bills are passed by the House. An anti-miscegenation bill is also passed.[610]
The North Carolina Democratic Party adopts the “white primary.” By this year, virtually all of the Southern states have adopted “white primaries.”[611]
The African American labor organization, the Railwaymen’s International Benevolent and Industrial Association, is established.[612]
Boll weevils destroy much of the U.S. cotton crop.[613]
W. E. B. DuBois publishes book, The Negro.[614]
The National Baptist Convention of the United States of America is incorporated.[615]
Sixty-nine African Americans are lynched in 1915. Between 1900 and 1915, 1,100 African Americans are lynched.[616]
February 23, 1915
Robert Smalls (1839-1915), Civil War hero and Congressman during the Reconstruction era, dies in Beaufort, South Carolina.[617]
June 23, 1915
In Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court begins to overturn states’ statutes that have disenfranchised African Americans in violation of the Fifteenth Amendment. This court case is the first major legal win for the NAACP.[618]
September 9, 1915
Dr. Carter Woodson, of Chicago, founds the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He becomes editor of its publication, The Journal of Negro History.[619]
September 27, 1915
Xavier University, in New Orleans, is founded as an African American Catholic college.[620]
November 14, 1915
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), President of the Tuskegee Institute and prominent African American leader, dies in Tuskegee, Alabama. Washington was the preeminent leader of African Americans in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.[621]
1916
The United States Department of Labor estimates that during an 18-month period, 350,000 African Americans have emigrated from the South. This is due to low wages, poor housing and schools, and lynchings.[622]
Marcus Garvey moves to the United States and establishes UNIA officers in Harlem.[623]
The NAACP establishes Anti-Lynching Committee. The NAACP sets up a field office in the South with James Weldon Johnson as Secretary. Up until this time, it had been a Northern organization. In addition, the NAACP attempts to influence Democratic and Republican campaign platforms. Further, it succeeded in persuading Congress to hold hearings on segregation and anti-miscegenation laws in Washington, DC.[624]
African American Army officer Charles Young is promoted to Colonel and is given command of a battalion of the 10th Cavalry. They participate in the Mexican Punitive Expedition, led by General Pershing. Young is the highest ranking African American officer in the U.S. Army.[625]
Fifty-four African Americans are lynched in 1916.[626]
March 9, 1916
Mexican Revolutionary leader Francisco “Pancho” Villa crosses the border and attacks the town of Columbus, New Mexico. In response, the United States will send an expeditionary force into Mexico with 4,800 troops. It is called the Punitive Expedition. African American troops participate in the campaign.[627]
November 7, 1916
Woodrow Wilson is reelected as President of the United States.[628]
1917
Supreme Court case of Buchanan v. Warley eliminates law restricting African Americans to designated areas of the city. The law is shown to be in violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.[629]
Marcus Garvey founds a newspaper, the Negro World. It is founded to advocate a “Back to Africa” movement. Eventually, 30 branches of Garvey’s organization, UNIA, will be opened in the United States.[630]
A. Phillip Randolph and Chandler Owen edit Messenger magazine, a monthly journal, in New York City. It calls for employment improvements for African Americans.[631]
Thirty-eight African Americans are lynched in 1917.[632]
April 6, 1917
On April 2, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. Congress declares war on this date.
More than 400,000 African Americans will serve in segregated units during World War I. Ten percent of African Americans will be assigned to combat units. These include the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. The NAACP, the Urban League, and African American newspapers demand that African Americans be trained for the officer corps. African American officers will only be able to serve in segregated units. 1,400 African Americans will serve as commissioned officers. Many are trained at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. 171 African Americans will be awarded the French Legion of Honor. No African Americans will be awarded the Medal of Honor at the time. Freddie Stowers (1991) and Henry Johnson (2015) will be awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously after an Army review of records.[633] Twenty Distinguished Service Crosses are awarded to African American soldiers of the 370th Infantry (12) and the 371st Infantry (8).[634]
May 28, 1917
Race riot breaks out in East St. Louis, Illinois. At least 40 and as many as 200 African Americans are killed and approximately $400,000 in property is destroyed. The governor of Illinois declares martial law and calls out the National Guard. This is considered the worst incident of labor-related violence in 20th Century American history.[635] In response, African Americans in New York City organize a protest march through the City on July 28. Ten thousand people participate.[636]
August 23, 1917
A riot ensues when a Houston police officer beats an African American soldier of the 24th Infantry. Seventeen European Americans and two African Americans are killed. More than 100 African American soldiers are court-martialed. Thirteen are executed and others are given life imprisonment. The NAACP will lobby for the release of the soldiers until the last is released in 1938.[637]
November 7-8, 1917
Revolution in Russia results in the overthrow of the Russian Romanoff monarchy. It sends reverberations throughout the world and will eventually cause Russia to withdraw from the war.
December 1917
The African American 369th Infantry Regiment becomes the first group of African American combat soldiers to arrive in France. They will be cited for bravery on 11 occasions, and the Regiment will be awarded the Croix de Guerre by France.[638]
1918
Eugene K. Jones becomes leader of the Committee on Urban Conditions Among Negroes. During this period, it expands its campaign in support of black employment.
The Department of Labor creates a Division of Negro Economics. It is led by George E. Haynes. It is designed to promote African American and European American labor relations.[639]
The War Department organizes a conference of 31 leading African American newspapermen. Most African American papers support the war, condemn mob violence, and call for the establishment of African Americans in the Red Cross.[640]
African Americans purchase $250 million worth of war bonds.[641]
The NAACP has 88,500 members and 300 branches, half of which are located in the South.[642]
Fifty-eight African Americans are lynched in 1918.[643]
July 29, 1918
The National Liberty Congress of Colored Americans lobbies Congress to make lynching a federal crime.[644]
November 11, 1918
World War I ends with Germany’s surrender. Many African Americans who served in the war return home to continuing prejudice and discrimination. Some veterans are beaten while wearing their uniforms.
A. Phillip Randolph coins the term, the “New Negro,” which comes to embody the spirit of African American activism and militancy after the war.
1919-1930
The Harlem Renaissance takes place in New York. This represents an important period in African American literature and culture. Some of the key influences are W. E. B. DuBois, James Weldon Johnson, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and Gene Toomer.[645]
1919
Eighty-three African Americans are lynched in 1919. Seventy-six African Americans are lynched between April and December, 1919.[646]
In the U.S., there are 25 major race riots throughout the country. Much of the violence takes place in the summer of 1919 and is called Red Summer.
Two persons are killed and four badly injured in riot against African Americans in Knoxville, Tennessee. U. S. Solders fire on African Americans, killing six and injuring 20.[647]
William Alexander founds the Commission on Interracial Cooperation. [648]
Quakers, in yearly meeting of Friends, officially oppose lynching. A committee against this “national crime” is organized.[649]
The General Assembly of Presbyterians announces opposition to lynching.[650]
The International League of Darker People is formed in New York to represent people of African descent at the Paris Peace Convention.[651]
The South Carolina legislature appropriates $100,000 for World War I African American soldier monument.[652]
The Ku Klux Klan holds more than 200 public rallies in the United States in 1919.[653]
African Americans attempt to organize their own independent labor union. They establish the National Brotherhood Workers of America. The American Federation of Labor opposes the union, and it is dissolved in 1921.[654]
The American Federation of Labor votes to abolish racial discrimination in union membership.[655]
In state supreme court case, State v. Young, West Virginia allows African Americans to serve on juries.[656]
Tennessee passes an anti-mob bill intended to prevent lynchings.[657]
North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama and Texas propose legislation to punish and prevent lynchings.[658]
W. E. B. DuBois compiles historic records on the battle achievements of African American combat units in World War I. In his report, he documents the racist treatment of African American soldiers by European American officers. He begins to write a book on the subject.[659]
Eighty-three African Americans are lynched in 1919.[660]
January 31, 1919
Jack (Jackie) Roosevelt Robinson, the first African American to play in modern major league baseball, is born in Cairo, Georgia.[661]
February 17, 1919
The African American 369th U. S. Infantry marches up Fifth Avenue in New York in a victory parade. More than a quarter of a million African Americans turn out to view the parade.[662]
February 19-21, 1919
W. E. B. DuBois organizes meeting of the First Pan-African Conference in Paris, France, in conjunction with the Paris peace talks. The Conference includes delegates from the U.S., Europe, the West Indies and Africa. DuBois is elected Executive Secretary of the organization.[663]
April 1919
Four African Americans are killed in a race riot in Millen, Georgia. Seven homes and five African American churches are burned. One African American is lynched.[664]
May 1919
The NAACP holds major meeting in New York on lynching. It proposes that lynching become a federal crime.[665]
July 19, 1919
Race riot breaks out in the African American neighborhoods of the Southwest district of Washington, DC. U. S. soldiers and sailors shoot at African American citizens and unlawfully search their homes.[666]
July 27-29, 1919
Race riot breaks out in Chicago over use of a segregated beach. After three days of fighting, it results in 38 killed, 15 European American and 23 African American, with 537 injured.[667]
August 25, 1919
Marcus Garvey gives influential speech at Carnegie Hall. The speech is among the first to address the racial pride of African Americans. As a result, the U.S. Attorney General and the forerunner of the FBI, the Bureau of Investigation, begin an investigation that will try to deport Garvey from the country. Garvey is indicted by a grand jury for criminal libel and is arrested and arraigned in New York City.[668]
September 1, 1919
In Georgia, African American churches and schools are burned.[669]
September 28 – October 1, 1919
Race riot in Omaha, Nebraska, against African Americans, and two are killed.[670]
October 1919
More than 200 African Americans are killed in a race riot in Elaine, Arkansas, in Phillips County. European Americans attacked African American farmers who were hoping to organize a union to protest low prices paid for cotton. Seventy-nine African Americans are indicted and tried on charges of murder and insurrection. The NAACP challenges the convictions, and most of the cases are overturned. The lawyer representing the NAACP is African American, Scipio Africanas Jones (1863-1943). The United States decides the case in Moore v. Dempsey in favor of the African American defendants.[671]
Edward W. Brooke, the first African American senator to serve after Reconstruction, is born in Washington, DC.[672]
1920
There are 10,463,131 African Americans registered for the 1920 census. They represent 9.9% of the total population of the United States. 15.9% of African Americans are reported to be of mixed race. 85.2% of African Americans live in the South. 6.5% of African Americans life in the Northeast, 7.6% live in the North Central, and 0.8% life in the West. Between 1890 and 1920, two million African Americans left the South and moved to the North. During this period, an educated middle class of African Americans begins to be developed in northern urban areas. They are represented by the NAACP and the National Urban League, and their publications, Crisis and Opportunity, respectively.[673]
The life expectancy of African American males is 45.5 years vs. 54.4 year for European American males; for African American females it is 45.2 years vs. 55.6 years for European American females.[674]
Harlem, in New York City, now has the largest urban African American population in the world. It becomes a center of black culture.[675]
The Republican Party makes opposition to lynching in the South part of their party platform at their national convention.
The Committee on Urban Conditions among Negroes is changed to the National Urban League. Its goals are to “enable African Americans to secure economic self-reliance, parity, power and civil rights.”[676]
The American Federation of Labor votes to support organizing and unionization of African Americans and to oppose discrimination.[677]
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded by lawyer Roger Baldwin and prominent Americans such as Helen Keller, Clarence Darrow, and future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. The ACLU will become the preeminent advocate protecting American citizens against assaults on the Bill of Rights. The ACLU will work with the NAACP in African American civil rights cases.[678]
Sixty-one African Americans are lynched in 1920.[679]
January 4, 1920
The National Negro Baseball League is organized.[680]
January 10, 1920
The League of Nations is created, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The General Assembly of the League of Nations will convene in November 1920.[681]
January 12, 1920
Civil rights leader and founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), James Farmer, is born in Marshall, Texas.[682]
January 16, 1920
Prohibition of alcohol goes into effect in the United States.[683]
August 1920
A convention of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which was founded by Marcus Garvey, is held at Liberty Hall in Harlem, New York. He advocates emigration of African Americans to Africa. This meeting represents UNIA’s peak year.[684]
August 18, 1920
The Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. constitution is ratified by the states and gives American women the right to vote. American women over 21 have the same voting rights as men. The American suffrage movement, which began in the mid-Nineteenth Century, grew out of the anti-slavery and abolitionist movements.[685]
August 26, 1920
The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. Women are given the vote for the first time in American history.[686]
November 2, 1920
Warren G. Harding is elected President of the United States.[687]
1921
Between 1921 and 1924, mass migration out of the South continues for African Americans. They primarily migrate to the Northern urban industrial centers and the far West. This migration is a result of changing of agricultural conditions, loss of jobs, and anger of African American veterans returning home from the war.[688]
Congressman L. C. Dyer, of Missouri, introduces a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to make lynching a federal crime. In 1922, the bill passes the House. The bill states that federal officers must protect the rights and lives of citizens and make “reasonable efforts to prevent the killing.” The penalty for lynching would be a felony and a fine of $10,000. The bill fails to pass in the U.S. Senate three times.[689]
The United States Congress passes a temporary immigration quote bill limiting the number of immigrants into the country. A racial bill, its intent is to limit immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe. It also restricts Asian immigration. In 1924, a new law makes these quotas permanent and will not be abolished until 1965.[690]
Franz Boaz, a preeminent European American anthropologist at Columbia University, publishes a landmark article entitled, “The Problem of the American Negro.” It discredits the concept of race as a scientific principle for classifying humans. He concludes that there is no biological difference between races that would form a basis for claiming racial superiority. He follows this up with a number of books to support his conclusion.[691]
Sixty-three African Americans are lynched in 1921.[692]
March 4, 1921
Warren G. Harding is elected President of the United States. In that same year, Harding supports economic and political equality for African Americans, though not necessarily social equality. He states that African Americans “should seek to be the best possible black man and not the best possible imitation of a white man.”[693]
June 1921
In Tulsa, Oklahoma, European Americans attack African Americans in African American neighborhoods. In the race riot/mob violence, 31 people are killed, 21 are African Americans. A 10-block area of an African American neighborhood is destroyed, leaving 3,000 homeless. Property damage is estimated to be more than $1.5 million. Thirty whites are arrested for looting black property. State guard troops are called in to quell the rioting.
July 31, 1921
Civil rights leader and activist, Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921-1971) is born in Kentucky. He will become head of the National Urban League and will receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[694]
August 1, 1921
Alex Haley, Pulitzer prize winning author for his novel, Roots, is born in Ithaca, New York.[695]
December 21, 1921
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, African American Civil War veteran, state senator, Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Louisiana, passes away in Washington, DC.[696]
1922-1929
United States economy experiences a period of extended prosperity. There is a boom in building and real estate.[697]
1922
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill. It proposes that “any state or municipal officer charged with the duty of protecting the life of any person, who may be put to death by a mob, and who fails to make all reasonable efforts to prevent the killing,…shall be punished by imprisonment, for not exceeding five years, or by a fine of $5,000 or less or by both… Any person who participates in a mob murder, is declared to be guilty of a felony.” In addition, the bill specifies that $10,000 is to be paid to the victim’s family by the county. The bill is filibustered in the senate and fails to pass.[698]
Frederick Douglass’ home in Anacostia, Virginia, is opened as a museum and historic site.[699]
Carter G. Woodson publishes The Negro in Our History. It is the first African American textbook.[700]
Treatment for diabetes is first administered. This has important health consequences for African Americans, who are highly susceptible to this disease.[701]
Nearly 500,000 African Americans leave the South during 1922, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report.[702]
Fifty-one (some sources claim 57) African Americans are lynched in 1922. Thirty of these were while being held in police custody.[703]
May 6, 1922
Three African American men are burned at the stake in public in Kirvin, Texas. Three hundred witness the murder.[704]
May 30, 1922
Dedication and opening of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Lincoln’s only surviving son, Robert, attends ceremony. President Warren G. Harding and former President Taft are speakers. The ceremony, which is attended by numerous African Americans, is segregated.[705]
1923
The U.S. Senate continues to refuse to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, which has successfully passed the House of Representatives. Upon the urging of the NAACP, President Calvin Coolidge condemns lynching in his annual message to Congress.[706]
U.S. Senator Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, of New Jersey, introduces a resolution authorizing a federal commission on lynching.[707]
Between 1923 and 1927, the death rate for African Americans in Harlem, New York City, is 42% higher than the rest of the city. Mortality during childbirth among African American women in Harlem is twice as high as their European American counterparts. Mortality rates from heart disease, cancer, pneumonia and tuberculosis is 2.5-3 times higher than in the rest of the city.[708]
Isaac Thornton Montgomery (1847-1923), prominent African American leader and businessman, dies. He is the founder of Mount Bayou in Mississippi, a large African American agricultural community. He is also the cofounder of the Negro Business League.[709]
The Pennsylvania house of representatives passes an anti-lynching law, similar to the Dyer bill.[710]
New Jersey enacts law to stop lynching and mob violence.[711]
The National Urban League begins publication of Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. This will become a major African American publication.[712]
By 1923, the Julius Rosenwald Fund to improve the lives of rural African Americans has built 1,700 schools and 49 teachers’ homes in Southern states, for a total of $6.2 million.[713]
Twenty-nine (some sources say 33) African Americans are lynched in 1934.[714]
January 1, 1923
Race riots/mob violence in Rosewood, Florida, begin. After a racial incident, European American mobs attack and burn 18 buildings owned by African Americans, destroying the entire African American community. The violence takes place over one week. In 1982, a newspaper story will appear about the destruction of Rosewood. In 1994, the Florida state legislature will award $2.1 million to the nine surviving Rosewood residents. In 1997, a feature film entitled Rosewood will be produced.[715]
January 7, 1923
A newspaper article is published in the Baltimore Sun regarding terrorist activities the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in Morehouse Parrish, Louisiana. A grand jury refuses to indict members of the KKK for murder.[716]
February 19, 1923
U. S. Supreme Court rules in the case of Moore v. Dempsey, a trial of an African American in Arkansas who was convicted of murder by an all-White jury. The Supreme Court rules that the due process of the defendant was violated because witnesses were threatened or beaten. This had occurred in many trials of African Americans. The NAACP had appealed to the Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus in this case.[717]
June 21, 1923
Marcus Garvey, of UNIA, is convicted of mail fraud and sentenced to prison.[718]
July 4, 1923
The Ku Klux Klan holds the largest rally ever held in a Northern state. Thousands gather in a town in Indiana.[719]
August 2, 1923
President Warren G. Harding dies in office and is replaced by Calvin Coolidge.
September 11, 1923
Charles Evers, prominent African American civil rights activist, is born in Decatur, Mississippi.[720]
1924
Congress passes a new law making European immigration quotas permanent. It is designed to limit largely Italians, Slavs and Jews who are termed “undesirables.” This Act also excludes persons of African descent from entry into the United States. These quotas are not removed until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 is passed.[721]
W. E. B. DuBois publishes The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America.[722]
Sixteen African Americans were lynched in 1924.
August 2, 1924
James Baldwin (1924-1987), prolific African American author, is born in Harlem, New York City.[723]
November 4, 1924
Calvin Coolidge is elected President of the United States.[724]
November 30, 1924
Shirley Chisholm, the first African American woman elected to Congress, is born in New York City.[725]
1925
A. Phillip Randolph takes the leadership of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. He encounters opposition to his union from the African American churches and press.
The Ku Klux Klan reaches its peak membership and political influence. The group’s targets are African Americans, Jews, Catholics and immigrants. It claims to have four million members.[726]
1926
Supreme Court case, Corrigan v. Buckley, challenges racial restrictive contracts against African Americans.[727]
1927
The Secretary of Commerce (later President) Herbert Hoover establishes the Division of Negro Affairs for African American businessmen.
Supreme Court case, Nixon v. Condon (1927, 1932), challenges legality of White voting primary.[728]
November 6, 1928
Herbert Hoover is elected President of the United States.[729]
January 15, 1929
Future civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., is born in Atlanta, Georgia.[730]
October 29, 1929
Stock market crashes, inaugurating a depression that lasts more than a decade. The low point is March 1933.[731]
1930
There are 11,891,111 African Americans registered for the 1930 census. They represent 9.7% of the total population of the United States. 78.7% of African Americans live in the South. 9.6% of African Americans life in the Northeast, 10.6% live in the North Central, and 1.0% life in the West. In the North and West, 88% of African Americans live in urban areas; 32% live in urban areas in the South.[732]
Klan membership has fallen to approximately 100,000, mostly in the South.[733]
1931
The NAACP organizes support for the “Scottsboro Boys,” nine African American men arrested, convicted and sentenced to death for allegedly raping two white women. Two important Supreme Court cases arise out of this incident—Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama. These cases extend the rights of defendants and obtain freedom for the Scottsboro Boys.
November 8, 1932
Franklin Roosevelt is elected President of the United States.[734]
1935
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) union obtains recognition from the Pullman Company.
The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) is founded by Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955). It is a national civil rights organization comprised of 31 organizations. It publishes Black Woman’s Voice and Sisters Magazine (Quarterly). It establishes an African American woman’s history archive and the Bethune Museum.[735]
1936-1938
The Federal Writers’ Project of the Works Progress Administration interviews surviving formerly enslaved individuals. It is called the Slave Narrative Collection, and is one of the most important collections of autobiographical material of formerly enslaved individuals. The collection has more than 2,000 interviews. At least 70 of these were by formerly enslaved individuals who were witnesses to liberation by the Union Army. The collection is held in the Library of Congress.[736]
November 3, 1936
Franklin Roosevelt is reelected President of the United States.[737]
1939
The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (LDEF) is established as the legal arm of the NAACP.[738] It takes on hundreds of civil rights cases. It separates from the NAACP in 1957.
Gone with the Wind is released by MGM Studios. It becomes the highest grossing film in history. It depicts the “lost cause” mythology of the old South. It further depicts happy slaves. Hattie McDaniel becomes the first African American actor to receive an Academy Award for her work in the film.
1939-1940
Between 1939 and 1940, per capita spending for education of African Americans is $18.82; for European American males it is $58.69.[739]
April 2, 1939
African American singer Marion Anderson holds concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, after she is refused the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.[740]
1940
There are 12,866,000 African Americans registered for the 1940 census. They represent 9.8% of the total population of the United States. 23.8% of African Americans live in the Northern and Western states. The net migration from the South between 1910 and 1940 was 1,750,000 African Americans. The majority of African Americans continue to live in rural areas in the South. The life expectancy of African American males is 51.5 years vs. 62.1 year for European American males; for African American females it is 54.9 years vs. 66.6 years for European American females.[741]
19.4% of African American males are unemployed, compared to 12.4% of European American males.[742]
There are 210 African American newspapers, mostly local, and 129 magazines. The largest is the Pittsburgh Courrier, with a circulation of 141,500, and the Chicago Defender, with 83,5000.
The NAACP begins effort to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces. African American leaders, including Walter White, T. Arnold Hill, and A. Phillip Randolph, submit a seven-point program to President Roosevelt. The NAACP also lobbies senators for U.S. Selective Service reforms so that African Americans could freely enlist in the services. Less than 5,000 African Americans, out of 230,000 men, are serving in the U.S. Army.[743]
Colonel Benjamin O. Davis is appointed Brigadier General in the U.S. Army, becoming the first African American general.[744]
Four African Americans are lynched in 1940.[745]
1940-1970
The second Great Migration of African Americans. This era begins after the Great Depression and has at least five million African Americans immigrate to Northern urban areas, including California and other Western areas. Many begin the migration to work in war industries.[746]
December 8, 1941
Congress declares war on the empire of Japan after a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. On December 11, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Congress declares war on Germany on the same day.[747]
December 1941- May 1945
The United States participates in World War II. The war is fought globally in Europe, the Pacific and Asia. 2.5 million African Americans register for the draft. They serve in segregated units in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Corps, Coast Guard, Marines and Merchant Marine. 6,500 African American women serve in the Women’s Army Corps, 122 of whom were officers. Their treatment is often highly prejudiced. Most African Americans are intentionally excluded from combat service. Most African Americans serve in quartermaster and other service of supply units. No African Americans are awarded the Medal of Honor for service in World War II until 1997.[748]
February 19, 1942
President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, forcibly removing Japanese Americans from the West Coast. This action is done on the recommendation of the U.S. Army commander on the West Coast, General DeWitt. Roosevelt justifies the action as “military necessity.” One hundred twenty thousand Japanese Americans are forced from their homes and businesses. Most will lose their property.[749]
Bayard Rustin goes to California to protect the property of imprisoned Japanese Americans.[750]
March 1942
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in Chicago by James L. Farmer, Jr., George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn, among others. The group is founded out of the original Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist organization. It is organized around the principles of nonviolence as a means of protesting racial segregation.[751]
1943
Bayard Rustin refuses to serve in the military and is imprisoned for two and a half years.[752]
1944
Supreme Court case, Smith v. Allwright, successfully challenges White voting primary.[753]
1947
Bayard Rustin co-organizes the first Freedom Ride in North Carolina. He is arrested and placed on a chain gang.[754]
April 10, 1947
The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sends a group of eight white and eight African American men on a two-week “Journey of Reconciliation” through North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. The trip is to promote the ending of racial segregation in interstate public transportation. Members of the group are arrested on several occasions. It is the beginning of a series of campaigns that will become known as the Freedom Rides.
February 2, 1948
President Truman sends message to Congress to recommend the establishment of a permanent civil rights commission, a civil rights division of the Justice Department, a permanent FEPC, federal anti-lynching laws, federal laws against discrimination in interstate transportation, and voter protection laws.[755]
July 26, 1948
President Harry Truman issues Executive Order 9981 to end segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces. He also bans discrimination in the hiring of federal employees.[756]
November 2, 1948
Harry Truman elected President of the United States.[757]
1950
There are 15,042,286 African Americans registered for the 1950 census. They represent 10% of the total population of the United States. 68% of African Americans live in the South, 13.4% in the Northeast, 14.8% in the North Central states, and 3.8% in the Western states. The net migration from the South between 1940 and 1950 was 1,597,000 African Americans. 632,000 went to the North, 483,000 to the Northeast, and 323,000 to the West. The proportion of African Americans in the populations of major urban centers are: Washington, DC, 23.1%; Baltimore, 19.8%; Philadelphia, 13.1%; St. Louis, 12.8%; Detroit, 11.9%; Chicago, 10.7%; Cincinnati, 10.5%; Cleveland, 10.4%; and New York City, 8.1%. 56.9% of European Americans own their own home, compared to 34.9% of African Americans.[758]
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Ralph Bunche for negotiating Palestine peace talks. He is the first African American to receive this award.[759]
1950-1953
The United States participates in the Korean War. In 1950, more than 100,000 African Americans are serving in the Armed Forces, mostly in segregated units. By the end of the war, more than 600,000 African Americans will be in the Armed Forces, many in desegregated units. The U.S. Marine Corps begins integrating its forces at the beginning of the Korean War.[760]
1951
Herbert Aptheker edits A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. It is published by the Citadel Press in New York.
November 4, 1952
General Dwight D. Eisenhower, hero of World War II, is elected President of the United States in a landslide victory.[761]
May 17, 1954
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, a consolidation of five cases, is decided by the Supreme Court. It ends racial segregation in public schools. Numerous schools remain segregated. This ruling reverses the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896.[762] It is argued by Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund.
March 2, 1955
A 15-year old African American high school student, Claudette Colvin, who had been learning about the Civil Rights movement in school, refuses to give up a seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus. She is arrested and charged for the incident. Nine months later, Rosa Parks will be arrested for a similar incident.
December 1955
The FBI’s COINTELPRO counterintelligence department begins a file on Dr. Martin Luther King after he receives notoriety for organizing the Montgomery bus boycott. It seeks to harm his reputation as a civil rights leader. The file will contain hundreds of memos on King.[763]
December 1, 1955
Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She is arrested for this act. This marks the beginning of a year-long Montgomery bus boycott by the African American community. The Supreme Court decision of November 13, 1956, ends the boycott. Desegregated bus service begins in the city on December 21.[764]
1957
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) holds Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. This is the first time Dr. Martin Luther King talks to a national audience.[765]
January 10, 1957
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is founded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Ralph Abernathy, Bayard Rustin, and Andrew Young, Charles Evers, Benjamin Hooks, James Bevel, Randolph Blackwell, Annie Bell Robinson Devine, Walter E. Fauntroy, Curtis W. Harris, Aaron Henry, Allen Johnson, Alfred Daniel Williams King, Cleveland Robinson, Charles Kenzie Steele, C. T. Vivian, and The Freedom Singers.[766] Dr. King becomes its first president.[767]
January 10-11, 1957
Sixty African American pastors and civil rights leaders from throughout the South meet in Atlanta, Georgia, to coordinate protests regarding racial segregation and discrimination. Martin Luther King attends this conference.[768]
September 4, 1957
Nine African American students, later known as the Little Rock 9, are prevented from integrating Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. On September 24, 1957, federal troops are sent by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to escort the students to their classes.[769]
September 9, 1957
President Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The law will protect voting rights of African Americans. This law will enable Federal prosecution for suppression of voter rights. In addition, legislation creates a Civil Rights Commission and Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice.[770]
1958
Dr. Martin Luther King authors the book, Stride Toward Freedom.
1959
Dr. Martin Luther King publishes The Measure of a Man. It contains some of his famous sermons, including “What is a Man?” and “The Dimensions of a Complete Life.”
California passes civil rights bills prohibiting racial discrimination in businesses, business and vocational schools, and membership in professional groups. It also enacts a law prohibiting discrimination in public housing.[771]
Oregon adds to its anti-discrimination housing laws, to include discrimination in private houses.
Anti-miscegenation laws are repealed in California, Idaho and Nevada.[772]
1960
There are 18,871,831 African Americans registered for the 1960 census. They represent 10.5% of the total population of the United States. 59% of African Americans live in the South, 16% in the Northeast, 18.3% in the North Central states, and 5.8% in the Western states. More than half of African Americans reside outside of the deep South. New York now has a higher African American population than any Southern state. The net migration from the South between 1950 and 1960 was 1,457,000 African Americans. 541,000 went to the Northeast, 558,000 to the North Central, and 332,000 to the West. 96% of African Americans in the North live in urban areas, compared to 93% in the West and 58% in the South. The proportion of African Americans in the populations of major urban centers are: Washington, DC, 24.3%; Baltimore, 21.9%; Philadelphia, 15.5%; Cleveland, 14.9%; Detroit, 14.9%; Chicago, 14.4%; St. Louis, 14.3%; and New York City, 10.5%. The life expectancy of African American males is 61.1 years vs. 67.4 year for European American males; for African American females it is 66.3 years vs. 74.1 years for European American females.[773]
The Chicago chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) challenges segregation in Chicago public schools.
February 1, 1960
In Greensboro, North Carolina, four African American college students sit in at a Woolworth’s white only lunch counter. Their peaceful demonstration inspires “sit-ins” throughout the South. Woolworth’s will revoke its whites-only segregation policy.[774]
April 1960
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is organized at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina, by civil rights activist Ella Baker. It takes a prominent role in African American voter rights registration. It organizes the Freedom Riders, and is a major participant in the 1963 March on Washington and the Mississippi Freedom Campaign.[775]
May 6, 1960
The Civil Rights Act of 1960 is passed, strengthening the 1957 civil rights act, to help African American register to vote.[776]
November 8, 1960
John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States. It is one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history. He wins by just over 100,000 votes out of 6.8 million votes. He appoints his brother, Robert, as Attorney General.[777]
November 14, 1960
Integration begins in New Orleans schools. It causes rioting in the city. On December 1, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rules the segregation laws enacted by the Louisiana legislature are unconstitutional.[778]
1961-1965
The United States commemorates the centennial of the American Civil War. The issue of slavery and its role as the cause of the war is not mentioned in most programs.
1961
Whitney M. Young, Jr., is elected President of the National Urban League. He institutes vocational training programs for African Americans. Between 1961 and 1971, the National Urban Leagues nearly doubles in size.[779]
March 23, 1961
Citizens of the District of Columbia are given the right to vote in presidential elections. It becomes the 23rd Amendment to the Constitution.[780]
May 4, 1961
Beginning of the Freedom Rides into the deep South. Men and women volunteer to travel throughout the deep South testing segregation practices in bus terminals. The Riders are severely beaten. The violence against the participants makes national news and draws attention to their cause.
June 30, 1961
Congress passes the Housing Act of 1961 to improve housing options for low- and moderate-income Americans.[781]
November 1961
The Albany Movement, a civil rights organization supporting desegregation, is established in Albany, Georgia. It organizes nonviolent protests against segregation in the city. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., becomes involved in the Movement in December. On December 16, Dr. King and members of the movement will be arrested at a peaceful demonstration.[782]
1962
The Confederate flag is displayed on the state capitol grounds in South Carolina. It remains on display until July 2015.
May 17, 1962
Harry Wachtel founds the nonprofit organization called the Gandhi Society for Human Rights. It is founded to aid the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the nonviolent civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., serves as honorary president.[783]
July 1962
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., begins serving a 45-day jail sentence in Albany, Georgia. He is bailed out after three days.[784]
September 30 – October 10, 1962
African American James Meredith is admitted under a federal court order to the University of Mississippi. Two individuals are killed in a riot that ensues.[785]
November 20, 1962
President Kennedy issues Executive Order prohibiting religious and racial discrimination in federal housing.[786]
1963
African American civil rights leaders organize the largest demonstrations on behalf of African American civil rights since Reconstruction. These demonstrations begin a paradigm shift toward subsequent civil rights legislation. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice under President Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy brings more than 50 lawsuits in four states for African American voter rights.[787]
April 3, 1963
African American civil rights demonstrations are held in Birmingham, Alabama. Demonstrators are beaten by police. This creates sympathy for the civil rights movement.[788] Dr. Martin Luther King helps to organize non-violent protests there. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) activist James Bevel recruits children and young adults to participate in the demonstrations. This effort is later called the Children’s Crusade.[789] The SCLC is criticized for this tactic, but the campaign will be successful. During this campaign, Dr. King is arrested for the 13th time. While jailed, he writes “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In it, he states, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”[790]
June 11, 1963
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace blocks the entry of African American students to the University of Alabama. President John F. Kennedy federalizes the National Guard and sends a representative from the Justice Department will allow the students to pass onto the campus.
President Kennedy calls for a national commitment to equality in public housing.
August 28, 1963
More than 250,000 people, mostly African Americans, participate in the March on Washington. The March takes place in front of the Lincoln Memorial. The demonstration is for both jobs and freedom. Five major civil rights organizations participate in organizing the March on Washington. They are represented by: James L. Farmer, Jr., Congress of Racial Equality; John Lewis, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; A. Philip Randolph, Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters; Roy Wilkins, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People; Whitney Young, National Urban League. Martin Luther King gives his famous “I have a dream” speech. He declares, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” [791]
After the “I Have a Dream” speech, the FBI declares that “[Martin Luther King] is the most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country.” The FBI records thousands of memos on King.[792]
September 11, 1963
Alabama Governor George C. Wallace allows the integration of the University of Alabama after President Kennedy federalizes the National Guard in the state.[793]
September 15, 1963
Four young African American girls are killed and several injured in a bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. This bombing causes numerous protests. It is a major catalyst for the civil rights movement.
November 22, 1963
President Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as the 36th U. S. President.[794]
January 8, 1964
President Lyndon B. Johnson calls for a War on Poverty in his State of the Union address.[795]
January 23, 1964
The 24th Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, banning the restrictive poll tax for voting in federal elections.[796]
February 6, 1964
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., begins lecture series on civil rights at the New School in New York City. The speech is called, “The American Crisis.” The speech compares the condition of African Americans in the United States to that of the untouchables in India.[797]
July 2, 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. This federal law is designed to prevent discrimination in employment because of race, color, sex, religion or national origin. It also creates Title VII, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).[798]
August 30, 1964
President Johnson signs Economic Opportunity Act. It fights illiteracy, unemployment and other inequalities. Ten federal programs are created, supervised by the Office of Economic Opportunity. These include, among others, VISTA and Job Corps.[799]
October 14, 1964
Martin Luther King receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his activities promoting racial equality through non-violent resistance.[800]
November 3, 1964
President Johnson is elected President of the United States in a landslide.[801]
November 21, 1964
FBI sends anonymous, threatening letter to Coretta Scott King. The letter is thought to suggest that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., commit suicide, decline the Nobel Peace Prize, or step down from his leadership role in the civil rights movement.[802]
December 1964
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) begins working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Selma, Alabama, on voter registration. Soon, a judge orders an injunction barring the gathering of local African American civil rights groups.
1965-1973
The United States participates in major fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam War has the highest proportion of African Americans to serve in any war. Between 1965 and 1969, African Americans will form 11% of the American population, yet will be 12.6% of soldiers stationed in Vietnam. Most will serve in the infantry. African American combat fatalities will be nearly 15% in the war.[803] Twenty African Americans are awarded the Medal of Honor for combat in Vietnam.[804]
1965
Malcolm X. publishes his autobiography, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, in collaboration with Alex Haley. This is arguably the most important 20th Century African American autobiography.[805]
Congress passes the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, lifting the quota on new immigrants from Eastern European and Asian countries.[806]
January 2, 1965
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., defies a judge’s injunction against public gatherings by giving an address at Brown Chapel AME church in Selma, Alabama.[807]
January 4, 1965
In a State of the Union address before Congress, President Johnson calls for a large federal program to achieve the “Great Society.” It calls for a doubling of the War on Poverty and further enforcement of existing civil rights laws.[808]
February 21, 1965
Muslim religious activist Malcom X is assassinated at a rally in Harlem. His suspected killers are members of the Nation of Islam.
March 7, 1965
The Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, march takes place. More than 600 civil rights activists take part. They protest African American voter suppression. Police block the marchers and attack them, beating them badly. The event is broadcast widely in the United States and is seen internationally. Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders defend in court their right to peacefully march. Two other marches take place and a rally is held in Montgomery on March 25.[809]
July 30, 1965
Medicare bill is passed by Congress. It provides funds for medical care of the aged through the Social Security system. Social Security benefits are raised by 7%.[810]
August 6, 1965
Voting Rights Act of 1965 is signed by President Lyndon Johnson. It prevents the use of literary tests as an impediment against African Americans voting. Federal examiners and observers are allowed to monitor polling places in the South.[811]
August 11-16, 1965
The Watts riot takes place in South Central Los Angeles. Twenty-eight African Americans lose their lives. There is $200 million in property damage.[812]
September 9, 1965
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is established.[813]
1966
The National Negro Business League, originally founded in 1900, changes its name to the National Business League. It remains in operation as of 2018.
March 5, 1966
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., leads march through Marquette Park in Chicago. He and the marchers are attacked by screaming mobs. Bottles are thrown at King and the marchers.[814]
May 14, 1966
Stokely Carmichael is elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He uses “Black Power” as a rallying cry in protest march to Jackson, Mississippi.[815]
July 12-15, 1966
Chicago riots.[816]
July 29, 1966
Dr. Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) launch a campaign in Chicago, Illinois, for open housing.[817]
August 26, 1966
Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daly agrees to end de facto housing segregation in the city.[818]
October 15, 1966
The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally called the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, is founded by African American activists Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party is active through 1982. It was founded to monitor police brutality in the Oakland, California, police department. It establishes numerous social programs, including free breakfasts for children and health clinics. It will reach its peak membership in 1970.
April 4, 1967
Dr. Martin Luther King formally begins his active opposition to the war in Vietnam. He gives a speech at the Riverside Church in New York City entitled, “Beyond Vietnam.” African Americans serve in disproportionate numbers as soldiers in Vietnam and experience higher casualty rates than their white counterparts.[819]
June 13, 1967
Thurgood Marshall is nominated by President Johnson for Supreme Court Associate Justice. He is confirmed by the Senate on August 30, 1967 as the 69th member of the Supreme Court and the first African American appointed to the high court.[820]
July 12-17, 1967
Riots take place in Newark, New Jersey.[821]
July 23-30, 1967
Riots take place in Detroit, Michigan. Forty people die and 2,000 are injured.[822]
1968
Shirley Chisholm is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 12th District of New York. She serves until her retirement in 1982. She is the first African American woman elected to Congress.[823]
February 29, 1968
The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, led by Governor Otto Kerner, issues a report on the massive 1967 riots. It is called the Kerner Report. It states that the cause of the riots was the unequal distribution of wealth between black and white societies and racial division, which is the main cause of the violence.[824]
April 1, 1968
Open Housing Law is passed to eliminate discrimination in the sale or rental of housing.
April 4, 1968
Martin Luther King, leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots break out in 125 cities in 29 states.[825]
April 11, 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, the Fair Housing Act, is signed by President Johnson in the White House. It provides for equal housing opportunities, irrespective of race, religion and national origin.
April 29 – June 23, 1968
Dr. Ralph Abernathy, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, organizes the “Poor People’s Campaign” in Washington, DC. It calls for improvement in housing, welfare and employment.[826]
November 5, 1968
Richard M. Nixon defeats Democratic Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey and is elected President of the United States. Democrats maintain control of Congress and the Senate.[827]
1969
Whitney M. Young receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in civil rights.[828]
July 20, 1969
Man lands on the moon. The cost for the space program up to this point equals $24.6 billion.
August 29, 1969
U.S. Supreme Court orders immediate end to all school segregation (Alexander v. Holmes Co.).[829]
1971
Martin Luther King, Jr., Day is established as an official holiday in numerous cities and states.
The National Black Woman’s Leadership Political Caucus is founded in Washington, DC. It helps African American women to understand issues and the political process.[830]
June 30, 1971
The 26th Amendment, which lowers the voting age to 18 in federal, state and local elections, is proposed. The Amendment is then ratified. The Voting Rights Extension Act extends the Voting Rights Act of 1965, prohibits literacy tests for qualification for voting.[831]
1972
Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American candidate for a major party’s nomination for President of the United States.
March 22, 1972
Congress proposes Women’s Rights Amendment, which states: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.”[832]
November 7, 1972
President Nixon defeats Senator George McGovern in a landslide for President (570 electoral votes for Nixon, 17 for McGovern).[833]
July 27, 1974
The House Judiciary Committee votes for three articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon. The first was on the grounds that he “engaged personally and through his subordinates and agents in a course of conduct designed to delay, impede, and obstruct the investigation” of the Watergate office break-in; “to cover up, conceal, and protect those responsible”; and to “conceal the existence and scope of other unlawful covert activities.” On July 29, the second article of impeachment was passed, accusing Nixon of “violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice in the conduct of lawful inquiries of contravening the law governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposes of these agencies.” On July 30, the third article of impeachment was passed, charging Nixon with defying Congressional committee subpoenas and impeding the Congressional impeachment process.[834]
August 8, 1974
President Nixon announces his resignation. It takes effect the next day at 11:35 a.m. At 12:03 p.m., Gerald Ford is sworn in as President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.[835]
1975-1980
This era is called the New Great Migration. It sees the gradual movement of African Americans to the so-called New South. This is due to economic recessions in the Northeast and Midwest. There is a lower cost of living, family ties, and improved civil rights relations. The greatest migration is to Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Florida and California.
August 6, 1975
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is extended for seven years. The Act now covers Native Americans, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives, and Hispanics.[836]
1976
Alex Haley publishes the Pulitzer prize winning biography of his family, Roots. It is made into a popular television series, Roots, in 1977, and Roots: The Next Generation, in 1979. It is one of the most viewed television programs to date. It inspires African Americans to trace their genealogies and sparks a general discussion of slavery and race in America.[837]
November 2, 1976
Jimmy Carter is elected President of the United States.[838]
1977
Patricia Roberts Harris (1924-1985) is appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. In 1979, she will be appointed Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. She is the first African American female cabinet member.[839]
June 28, 1978
The Supreme Court decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke holds that “race conscious programs to remedy proven past discrimination might be upheld under the Constitution.” It is called Affirmative Action.[840]
November 4, 1980
Ronald Reagan, former Governor of California, is elected President of the United States by a landslide, defeating incumbent President Jimmy Carter.[841]
June 29, 1982
The section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that calls for changes in electoral procedures in states with a past history of discrimination is extended for 25 years.[842]
June 30, 1982
The Equal Rights Amendment to the constitution fails ratification. A vote in the House of Representatives fails to revive the ERA.[843]
February 1983
Harold Washington is elected first African American Mayor of Chicago.
Woodrow Wilson Goode is elected first African American Mayor of Philadelphia. He is reelected in 1987.
November 2, 1983
President Ronal Reagan signs bill authorizing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official U.S. holiday.
1984
Shirley Chisholm cofounds the National Political Congress of Black Women.[844]
May 17, 1984
Roy Wilkins, African American civil rights leader from the 1930s to the 1970s, leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), receives the Congressional Gold Medal.
November 6, 1984
President Reagan defeats Democratic candidate Walter Mondale in one of the largest landslides in American history.[845]
January 16, 1986
Bronze bust of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is unveiled in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. The sculptor is John Wilson.[846]
January 20, 1986
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is first celebrated as a federal holiday.
September 17, 1987
On the 200th anniversary of the U.S. constitution, the House of Representatives passes House Resolution 442, apologizing for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Monetary payments of $20,000 are given to each living survivor who spent time in America’s concentration camps. More than 70,000 individuals are paid. Near two billion dollars are paid as reparations. A multi-million dollar educational fund is established to preserve the former camp sites and support historic community projects. This inspires Congressman Conyers to propose legislation for redress and reparations for slavery, which becomes HR40.
On this date, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History opens and dedicates its exhibit on the Japanese American internment, called A More Perfect Union.
April 20, 1988
The Senate passes HR442, the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, for Japanese American redress and reparations.
August 10, 1988
HR442 is signed into law by President Ronald Reagan.
November 4, 1988
George Herbert Walker Bush is elected President of the United States, defeating Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis.
1989
Beginning of the end of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and an end to the Cold War begins. Elections in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Germany end the Soviet political domination of these countries. The Berlin Wall falls on November 9.[847]
January 1989
There are 7,226 African Americans holding elective office in the United States. They include a governor, 24 Members of the House of Representatives, and 416 state legislators.[848]
H.R. 40, Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act, is introduced into the United States House of Representatives by Congressman John Conyers. For more than 30 years, it fails to be reported out of committee.
August 10, 1989
General Colin Powell is nominated to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is the first African American to hold that office.[849]
November 7, 1989
David N. Dinkins is elected first African American Mayor of New York City.[850]
November 8, 1989
Lawrence Douglas Wilder is elected the first African American Governor of Virginia.[851]
1990
The Soviet Union withdraws troops from a number of its occupied countries in Eastern Europe, including Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Germany.[852]
February 11, 1990
Leader of the African National Congress in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, is released from prison. He has been held for 27 years. Mandela visits the United States on June 20.
August 7, 1990
U.S. Armed Forces begin deploying to Saudi Arabia in what is called Operation Desert Shield.
November 19-21, 1990
Official end of the Cold War in Europe. Thirty-two European nations, as well as Canada and the United States, sign the Paris Summit accords.[853]
January 16, 1991
Operation Desert Storm begins. The U.S. and 27 other nations begin action against Iraqi forces who have occupied Kuwait.[854]
July 1, 1991
Clarence Thomas is nominated to the Supreme Court by President George H. W. Bush. He is to replace Thurgood Marshall, who was the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Thomas is confirmed by Congress on October 15.[855]
April 29-May 2, 1992
Riots take place in South Central Los Angeles in the wake of the acquittal of four Caucasian policemen for the beating of Rodney King. Fifty people die. Damage is estimated to be one billion dollars.[856]
November 3, 1992
Bill Clinton is elected President of the United States with 370 electoral votes.
The number of African American Congressmen increases from 25 to 38 in the House of Representatives.[857]
1996
Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum is founded in Savannah, Georgia. In 2009, it is recognized as Georgia’s official civil rights museum.
1997
Oil painting of African American U.S. Congressman Ronald Dellums of California is commissioned by the House of Representatives.[858]
January 13, 1997
President Bill Clinton awards retroactive Medals of Honor to seven African American soldiers who served in World War II. They are awarded to First Lieutenant Vernon Baker, Major Charles L. Thomas, First Lieutenant John R. Fox, Staff Sergeant Ruben Rivers, Staff Sergeant Edward A. Carter, Jr., Private First Class Willy F. James, Jr., and Private George Watson. Only Vernon Baker was still living.
1998
Prize-winning book, Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War, by Tony Horowitz, is published. He writes about his observations on modern Atlanta, and following Sherman’s March to Savannah.
WGBH, a PBS television station in Boston, Massachusetts, airs “Africans in America.” It is a four-part documentary.
Nearly three million African Americans have diabetes. Diabetes has become the fourth leading cause of death by disease. Between the 1960’s and the end of the Twentieth Century, diabetes in African Americans triples. Nearly six percent of African American men and nearly eight percent of African American women with the disease do not know they have it. African Americans disproportionately experience the complications of diabetes, which include blindness, amputation and end stage renal disease.[859]
October 21, 1998
The “Little Rock Nine” students, who desegregated Little Rock High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, are honored with a Congressional Gold Medal.
May 4, 1999
Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, receives the Congressional Gold Medal.
July 1999
Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia, begins living history program, “Enslaving Virginia,” which portrays slavery in the British colonial period.
2001
The United States National Slavery Museum is founded as a non-profit organization by individuals in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They begin collecting objects for the museum. Due to funding constraints, the museum is yet to be built.
September 2002
Oil painting of African American Senator from Mississippi Blanche Kelso Bruce is unveiled in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol. The canvas is by Simmie Lee Know.[860]
October 29, 2003
Jackie Robinson, who was the first African American to play in the Major Leagues and integrated baseball, is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
December 6, 2003
African American leader, Dr. Dorothy Height, is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
December 15, 2003
Civil rights activists Joseph A. De Laine, Harry and Eliza Briggs, and Levi Pearson, whose four lawsuits in South Carolina resulted in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954, are awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
October 25, 2004
Dr. Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King and awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
2005
National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum opens in Peterboro, New York. Their mission is: “The National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum honors antislavery abolitionists, their work to end slavery, and the legacy of that struggle, and strives to complete the second and ongoing abolition—the moral conviction to end racism.”
April 11, 2006
The Tuskegee Airmen, African American fighter and bomber pilots in World War II, are awarded a Congressional Gold Medal.
2008
Oil painting of U.S. Representative Shirley Chisholm is commissioned by Congress. The artist is Kadir Nelson.[861]
July 1, 2008
African American Senator Edward William Brooke is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for “his unprecedented and enduring service to our Nation."
July 29, 2008
The United States House of Representatives issues an apology for slavery in the form of House Resolution 194. The resolution “(1) acknowledges that slavery is incompatible with the basic founding principles recognized in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal; (2) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow; (3) apologizes to African Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow; and (4) expresses its commitment to rectify the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African Americans under slavery and Jim Crow and to stop the occurrence of human rights violations in the future.”
November 4, 2008
Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American President.
2009
Prominent historian Eric Foner writes The Fiery Trial, which discusses the role of Lincoln in the anti-slavery movement. He receives the Pulitzer Prize for this book.
Eric Saul begins research project to compile a registry of American abolitionists and anti-slavery activists, as well as related organizations. The material is posted on the Internet in 2014 (www.americanabolitionists.com).
April 28, 2009
A bronze bust of abolitionist, Underground Railroad conductor and Union spy Sojourner Truth is unveiled in Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center, the United States Capitol. The sculptor is Artis Lane.[862]
June 18, 2009
The United States Senate issues an apology for slavery in the form of Senate Concurrent Resolution 26. The resolution provides “(1) apology for the enslavement and segregation of African-Americans. The Congress (A) acknowledges the fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality, and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow laws; (B) apologizes to African Americans on behalf of the people of the United States, for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow laws; and (C) expresses its recommitment to the principal that all people are created equal and endowed with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and calls on all people of the United States to work toward eliminating racial prejudices, injustices, and discrimination from our society. (2) DISCLAIMER. – Nothing in this Resolution—(A) authorizes or supports any claim against the United States; or (B) serves as a settlement of any claim against the United States.”
October 9, 2009
The Nobel Committee announces President Barack Obama is to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
December 10, 2009
President Obama accepts the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway.
2011-2015
The sesquicentennial of the Civil War is commemorated in the United States. Slavery and the history of African Americans becomes a prominent part of the interpretation of these events. The National Park Service has many programs on this.
August 22, 2011
The Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial monument on the National Mall, near the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, DC, is open to the public. It is officially dedicated, with President Barack Obama in attendance, on October 16, 2011.
November 23, 2011
The first African American US Marines, the “Montford Point Marines” of World War II, are awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
February 28, 2012
Architectural stone from the original wall of the U.S. Capitol is dedicated in Emancipation Hall, at the Capitol Visitor Center, honoring enslaved persons who worked on the construction of the U.S. Capitol.[863]
May 24, 2013
Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, African American children who were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15, 1963, are awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. The bombing served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement.
November 6, 2012
Barack Obama is re-elected for a second term as President of the United States.
February 27, 2013
Bronze statue of Rosa Parks is dedicated in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. The sculptor is Eugene Daub.[864]
June 13, 2013
Statue of African American abolitionist and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass is dedicated in Emancipation Hall, the Capitol Visitor Center, at the United States Capitol. The sculptor is Steven Weitzman.[865]
January 25, 2014
American Abolitionists website (www.americanabolitionists.com) is posted.
June 2014
Ta-Nehisi Coates publishes his essay “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic. It is widely discussed and reparations becomes an important topic in the general media. Coates later publishes Between the World and Me.
December 21, 2014
The City of Savannah, Georgia, begins program to commemorate the freeing of enslaved individuals in and around the city during Sherman’s capture and occupation of the city.
March 7, 2015
The Selma to Montgomery civil rights marchers of 1965 are awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.
June 17, 2015
Dylan Roof enters a Bible study meeting at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina and murders nine African American churchgoers. Photographs of him holding a Confederate battle flag and a gun spark a discussion to remove the Confederate flag from display in public spaces.
June 24, 2015
Governor Robert Bentley orders the removal of the Confederate flag from the Alabama state capitol grounds. Three other Civil War flags are also removed. Bentley stated to the press: “This is the right thing to do… We are facing some major issues in this state regarding the budget and other matters that we need to deal with. This had the potential to become a major distraction as we go forward. I have taxes to raise, we have work to do. And it was my decision that the flag needed to come down.”[866]
July 10, 2015
Nikki Haley, first woman governor of South Carolina, orders the removal of the Confederate flag from the capitol grounds in Columbia. She states: “[I]t should have never been there. These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain.”[867]
July 14, 2015
African American author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates publishes Between the World and Me. The book is written in the form of a letter to his son and is about his feelings and perceptions of being Black in the U.S. It becomes a best-seller. In the book, he advocates for wealth-building for the African American community and for reparations.
August 13, 2015
Statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis is removed from the campus of the University of Texas, Austin, following the election of a new student body president and the massacre in Charleston, South Carolina.[868]
September 24, 2015
A large rock with a plaque commemorating Confederate soldiers from Boone County, Missouri, is removed from the University of Missouri campus.[869]
2016
The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition by Manisha Sinha, is published by Yale University Press.
September 24, 2016
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture opens in Washington, DC. The museum has large section on the slave trade in the United States and in the colonies.
November 8, 2016
Donald J. Trump is elected 45th President of the United States. He loses the popular vote.
November 19, 2016
A Confederate monument on the University of Louisville campus is removed and relocated to a small town in Kentucky.[870]
April 24, 2017
The Battle of Liberty Place monument, with its plaque celebrating “white supremacy,” is removed in New Orleans, Louisiana.[871]
May 11, 2017
Statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis is removed from its pedestal/column in New Orleans by order of Mayor Mitch Landrieu. He acts proactively to remove the statue. The decision is highly unpopular.[872]
May 17, 2017
The equestrian statue of Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard in New Orleans, Louisiana, is removed.[873]
May 19, 2017
The statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee is removed from its column in the middle of Lee Circle in New Orleans, Louisiana.[874]
June 28, 2017
The Confederate monument in Forest Park in St. Louis, Missouri, is removed. It had been repeatedly vandalized. It depicted the “angel of the spirit of the Confederacy.”[875]
July 4, 2017
Statue of Confederate soldier in Orlando, Florida, nicknamed “Johnny Reb” is moved from a public park to a cemetery where Confederate soldiers were buried.[876]
July 24, 2017
A large statue of a Confederate soldier in Rockville, Maryland, is removed from courthouse grounds.[877]
August 14, 2017
Monument of a Confederate soldier in Gainesville, Florida, is removed from downtown. It is moved to private cemetery more than 10 miles away.[878]
August 15, 2017
A plaque honoring Confederate General Stonewall Jackson is removed from the St. Petersburg, Florida, waterfront.[879]
A Confederate soldier’s monument is turn over by a group of angry protesters in Durham, North Carolina.[880]
August 16, 2017
Four Confederate statures are removed from public grounds in Baltimore, Maryland. One is of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney. The other three are for Confederate soldiers.[881]
Two plaques honoring Robert E. Lee are removed from church grounds in Brooklyn, New York, by order of the Episcopal Dioceses of Long Island.[882]
A monument to Confederate soldiers is removed from the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles, California.[883]
A plaque honoring Confederate President Jefferson Davis is removed from a public plaza in San Diego, California.[884]
August 17, 2017
A bust of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney is removed from its place in the front of the old City Hall in Fredrick, Maryland. Taney wrote the decision in the Dred Scott case, which ruled that Dred Scott, an enslaved person, was not protected as a citizen by the Constitution.[885]
A plaque commemorating Confederate soldiers is removed from a city-owned park in Madison, Wisconsin. Mayor Paul Slogin says, “The Civil War was an act of insurrection and treason and a defense of the deplorable practice of slavery. The monuments in questions were connected to that action and we do not need them on city property.”[886]
A monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee is removed by city officials in Franklin, Ohio.[887]
August 18, 2017
Busts of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are removed from the Hall of Fame for Great Americans, which is located at the Bronx Community College in the Bronx, New York. The Bronx Borough President states, “It is needed, it is time and it sends a clear message that we are not going to tolerate the hatred that we have been seeing.”[888]
Three plaques honoring Confederates are removed from a public park in downtown Daytona Beach, Florida.[889]
Confederate monument in Helena, Montana, is removed from its Hill Park location. Native American lawmakers have called for its removal, as the monument stood for segregation and slavery.[890]
Statue of U.S. Supreme Court justice Roger B. Taney is removed from Maryland state house grounds in Annapolis, Maryland. Its removal is initiated by the massacre in Charlottesville, Virginia.[891]
August 19, 2017
A plaque designating the birthplace of Confederate General Roswell Ripley in Worthington, Ohio, is removed. City officials state that Worthington “seeks to be a community that promotes tolerance, respect, and inclusion.”[892]
A marble statue of Robert E. Lee is removed from the façade of Duke University’s chapel in Durham, North Carolina. The University President states that it is being removed to “ensure the vital safety of students and community members who worship there”… and “to express the deep and abiding values of our university.”[893]
August 21, 2017
Four Confederate statues are removed from the University of Texas at Austin campus. The statues are of Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and Albert Sydney Johnston, former Texas Governor James S. Hogg, and Confederate Postmaster John H. Reagan. University President Greg Fenves calls the statues “symbols of modern white supremacy and neo-Nazism.”[894]
Plaque honoring Confederate soldiers on the grounds of the Howard County circuit court in Ellicott City, Maryland, is removed.[895]
August 22, 2017
A monument to Confederate soldiers, located on Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, Florida, is removed.[896]
August 24, 2017
A large granite obelisk memorializing Confederate soldiers is removed from the grounds of the Manatee County courthouse in Bradenton, Florida.[897]
August 25, 2017
A Confederate monument Kansas City, Missouri, near the border with Kansas, is removed. The monument is dismantled using chainsaws and is removed in 17 pieces.[898]
A statue of Confederate soldier George Morgan Jones is removed from the Randolph College school campus in Lynchburg, Virginia. President of the college, Bradley Bateman, states, “The college has no connection to the Confederacy and, thus, the presence of a statue glorifying a Confederate soldier has no place on our campus.”[899]
October 3, 2017
Ta-Nehisi Coates publishes the book, We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy. It is a collection of his essays on the Obama administration.
December 20, 2017
Statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan, are removed from two city parks in Memphis, Tennessee. Mayor of Memphis Jim Strickland announces the sale of the two parks to a nonprofit agency in order to get around the restriction on removing memorials on public property. He states, “History is being made in Memphis tonight.”[900]
March 20, 2018
Mitch Landrieu publishes book, In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. The book is about his decision as Mayor of New Orleans to remove Confederate statues from public spaces, which include Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, P. T. G. Beauregard, and the White League, which was a Reconstruction era group of racial bigots.
April 26,2018
National Memorial for Peace and Justice opens in Montgomery, Alabama. This six-acre site near the Alabama state capitol is a memorial to the victims of American White supremacy. It recognizes thousands of lynching victims in the 19th and 20th centuries. It features 800 steel columns hanging from the roof symbolizing victims of lynching.[901]
May 20, 2018
Former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu is honored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation with a Profile in Courage Award for his politically courageous stand in removing Confederate monuments in his city. The statues he removed were of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and P. G. T. Beauregard, and an additional monument memorializing individuals who opposed Reconstruction.
[1] Foner.
[2] Long, E. B., with Barbara Long, The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac, 1861-1865, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971, pp. 2-3; Foner.
[3] Long, pp. 8-9.
[4] Long, p. 10.
[5] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 160.
[6] Long, p. 26.
[7] Long, p. 31.
[8] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 183; Foner, p. 154.
[9] Long, pp. 31-34.
[10] Long, p. 38.
[11] Long, p. 44; Foner, E. The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, New York: Norton, 2010.
[12] Long, p. 46; Foner; Miers, pp. 24-25.
[13] Long, p. 59; Miers, p. 35.
[14] Long, p. 109.
[15] Official Records; Long, p. 77.
[16] Long, p. 78.
[17] Long, p. 77.
[18] Dumond, p. 370.
[19] Long, p. 77.
[20] Foner, p. 170.
[21] Long, p. 82.
[22] Long, p. 100.
[23] Long, p. 545.
[24] Foner, p. 171; Long, pp. 102-103.
[25] Dumond, p. 370; Long, pp. 102-103.
[26] Foner, p. 183; autobiography.
[27] Dumond, p. 372; Foner, pp. 175-179, 183, 186, 187, 191, 202, 204, 287.
[28] Foner, p. 175; Long, p. 106.
[29] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 487-488; Long, p. 109.
[30] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 515, 517-518; Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, pp. 112-113; Miers, p. 66.
[31] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, pp. 506-507; Long, p. 114.
[32] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 515; Long, p. 117; Miers, Vol. III, p. 66.
[33] Foner, p. 179.
[34] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 531.
[35] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 532.
[36] Foner, pp. 178-179.
[37] Foner, pp. 180-181.
[38] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. IV, p. 554.
[39] Foner, pp. 182-184, 342.
[40] Long, p. 134.
[41] Long, p. 135.
[42] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 25-26.
[43] Long, p. 144.
[44] Long, p. 144.
[45] Foner, p. 191; Long, p. 146.
[46] Miers, p. 80.
[47] Foner, p. 342.
[48] Long, p. 158.
[49] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 96; Long, p. 160.
[50] Long, p. 160; National Intelligencer, Jan. 16, 1863.
[51] Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, p. 179; Miers, p. 98.
[52] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 144-146; Foner, pp. 195-196.
[53] Miers, Vol. III, p. 99; H. Nicolay, pp. 134-135.
[54] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 152-153.
[55] Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 195; Miers, p. 98; Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, 944, 955, 958-959, 1143.
[56] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 169.
[57] Miers, Vol. III, p. 103.
[58] Long, p. 188.
[59] Foner, p. 197.
[60] Long, p. 192.
[61] Long, p. 193.
[62] Miers, Vol. III, p. 105; Philadelphia News, April 7, 1862.
[63] Long.
[64] Long, p. 196.
[65] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 265; Miers, Vol. III, p. 105.
[66] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 186.
[67] Miers, p. 106.
[68] Dumond, p. 372.
[69] Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 1191, 1300, 1523, 1526.
[70] Long, p. 198.
[71] New York Tribune, April 14, 1862.
[72] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 192; Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 201; Miers, p. 107.
[73] Long, pp. 203-204.
[74] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 222-223; Dumond, p. 372.
[75] Foner, p. 342.
[76] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 224-225.
[77] Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 203; Statute L, xii, 432.
[78] Dumond, p. 372; Foner, pp. 204-262.
[79] Long, pp. 219-220.
[80] Miers, Vol. III, p. 119; Monaghan, p. 227.
[81] Dumond, p. 372; Foner, p. 203; Statute L, xii, 432; Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 1137, 2917-2920, 2929, 2999.
[82] Dumond, p. 372; Foner.
[83] New York Tribune, June 21, 1862; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 278-279.
[84] Long, p. 237; Sears (1989), pp. 344-345.
[85] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 329-331; Foner, pp. 215-216; Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 2nd Session, pp. 3006, 3267-68, 3383, 3400.
[86] Dumond, p. 372; Basler, Roy P., ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln (8 vols.), New Brunswick, NJ: 1953-1955, Vol. V, pp. 317-319.
[87] Foner, p. 222.
[88] Miers, p. 128; Gideon Welles’ diary.
[89] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 324; Foner, p. 213.
[90] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 328-331; Dumond, p. 372; Foner; Long, p. 241; Miers, p. 128; Statute L, xii, 589.
[91] Long, p. 241.
[92] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 336-337; Dumond, p. 372; Foner, pp. 218-219; Long, pp. 242-243; Samuel Chase diary.
[93] Miers, p. 129.
[94] Long, p. 244.
[95] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 344-346.
[96] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 350-351.
[97] Miers, p. 131; Rice, pp. 521-522.
[98] Donald, 1954, pp. 105-106; Miers, p. 131.
[99] Basler, Vol. V, pp. 356-357.
[100] Long, p. 247; Miers, Vol. III, p. 131.
[101] Long, p. 251; Foner; Basler, Vol. V, pp. 370-375.
[102] Miers, Vol. III, p. 134.
[103] Long, pp. 253-254.
[104] Long, p. 254; Foner; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 388-389.
[105] Foner; Long, p. 255.
[106] Miers, p. 136.
[107] Long, p. 261.
[108] Basler, Vol. V, pp. 419-425; Miers, p. 139.
[109] New York Tribune, September 16, 1862; Miers, p. 139.
[110] Long, pp. 267-268.
[111] Miers, p. 140.
[112] Hay diary, cited in Miers, p. 139.
[113] Miers, p. 141.
[114] Foner; Long, p. 270; Basler, Vol. V, pp. 433-436.
[115] Washington Star, September 24, 1862; Basler, Vol. V, pp. 438-439.
[116] Long, p. 271.
[117] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 436-437; Long, p. 270.
[118] Miers, p. 141.
[119] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 444.
[120] Long, p. 273.
[121] Long, p. 278.
[122] Miers, p. 147.
[123] Miers, p. 147.
[124] Long, p. 284.
[125] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 496.
[126] New York Times, Nov. 24, 1862; Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, pp. 503-504.
[127] Foner, p. 343.
[128] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. V, p. 537; Long, p. 292.
[129] Foner, p. 238; Long.
[130] Long, p. 300.
[131] Miers, p. 159; Welles’ diary.
[132] Miers, p. 159.
[133] Welles’ diary.
[134] Basler, Vol. VI, p. 17.
[135] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 28-31; Foner; Long, p. 306; Miers, p. 160.
[136] Long, p. 309.
[137] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 48-49.
[138] Foner, p. 249.
[139] Long, p. 312.
[140] Long.
[141] Long, p. 325.
[142] Foner, pp. 284, 285, 294.
[143] Long, p. 331.
[144] Long, p. 332.
[145] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 149-150; Miers, Vol. III, p. 175.
[146] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 151; Miers, Vol. III, p. 177.
[147] Miers, Vol. III, p. 177.
[148] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 176.
[149] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 176-177; Miers, Vol. III, p. 179.
[150] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 181.
[151] Long, p. 348.
[152] Long, p. 357.
[153] Long, p. 359.
[154] Long, p. 359.
[155] Long, p. 369.
[156] Long, p. 370.
[157] Long, p. 372.
[158] Long, p. 378.
[159] Long, pp. 378-379.
[160] Long, pp. 378-379.
[161] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 319-320; Miers, Vol. III, p. 195; Washington Chronicle, July 8, 1863.
[162] Long, p. 384.
[163] Long, p. 387.
[164] Miers, Vol. III, p. 198.
[165] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 342.
[166] Long, p. 392.
[167] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 357; Miers, p. 199.
[168] Long, pp. 394-395.
[169] Long, p. 395; Miers, p. 200.
[170] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 374-375; Long, p. 396.
[171] Foner, p. 343.
[172] Miers, p. 204.
[173] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 428-429.
[174] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 440-441.
[175] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 444-449; Long, p. 409.
[176] Long, pp. 411-412.
[177] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 496-497.
[178] Long, p. 211.
[179] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 523-524.
[180] Miers, Vol. III, p. 217.
[181] Long, p. 435; Miers, pp. 221-222.
[182] Long, p. 444.
[183] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 36-56; Long, p. 444.
[184] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, pp. 76-77; Long, p. 447.
[185] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VI, p. 81; Long, p. 448.
[186] Foner, p. 167.
[187] Long, p. 454.
[188] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 145-146; Long, p. 457.
[189] Miers, Vol. III, p. 241.
[190] Long, p. 468.
[191] Long, p. 470.
[192] Long, p. 472.
[193] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 226-227; Long, p. 473; Miers, Vol. III, pp. 244-245.
[194] Long, p. 473; Miers, Vol. III, p. 245.
[195] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 236; Long, p. 473.
[196] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 239-240.
[197] Long, p. 474.
[198] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 243; Miers, p. 246.
[199] Long, p. 476.
[200] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 251; Long, p. 467.
[201] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 260-261; Long, p. 467.
[202] Foner, pp. 297-298; Long, p. 481.
[203] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 287.
[204] Long, p. 481.
[205] Miers, Vol. III, p. 252; Washington Star, April 7, 1864.
[206] Miers, Vol. III, p. 252.
[207] Foner, pp. 294-295; Long, p. 482.
[208] Long, p. 464.
[209] Long, p. 484.
[210] Long, p. 487.
[211] Long, p. 487.
[212] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 328-329.
[213] Long, p. 492.
[214] Long, pp. 492-493.
[215] Long, p. 499.
[216] Foner.
[217] Long, p. 518.
[218] Long, p. 518.
[219] Foner.
[220] Long, p. 523.
[221] Long, p. 524.
[222] Long, pp. 524-525.
[223] Long, p. 528.
[224] Long, p. 529.
[225] Miers, Vol. III, p. 268; Statue L., XII, 200.
[226] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 419; Long, p. 530.
[227] Long, p. 531; Miers, Vol. III, p. 269.
[228] Long, pp. 531-532.
[229] Foner, p. 301-302.
[230] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 425-427; Long, p. 534.
[231] Long, p. 535.
[232] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 433-434.
[233] Long, p. 537; Miers, Vol. III, p. 271; Hay Diary.
[234] Long, pp. 537-538; Miers, Vol. III, p. 271; Washington Chronicle, July 13, 1864.
[235] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, p. 451.
[236] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VII, pp. 448-449.
[237] Long, pp. 543-544.
[238] Long, p. 545.
[239] Long, pp. 551-552.
[240] Foner, p. 344; Basler, Vol. VII, pp. 503-504.
[241] Lincoln, Basler, Vol. VII, p. 514.
[242] Miers, Vol. III, p. 279.
[243] Long, p. 563.
[244] Long, p. 565.
[245] Long, p. 567.
[246] Long, p. 567.
[247] Long, p. 571.
[248] Long, p. 582.
[249] Long, p. 583.
[250] Long, p. 585.
[251] Miers, Vol. III, p. 292.
[252] Long, p. 591.
[253] Long, p. 164.
[254] Long, p. 594; Miers, Vol. III, p. 294.
[255] Lincoln, in Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VIII, p. 100-102; Nevins, 1971; Washington Chronicle, Nov. 11, Hay Diary.
[256] Long, pp. 596-597.
[257] Harper’s Weekly.
[258] Long, p. 606.
[259] Lincoln, Basler, Vol. 7, cited in Nevins, p. 208.
[260] Long, p. 606.
[261] Long, pp. 610-612.
[262] Bureau of the Census, Population of the United States in 1860, p. 599; Drago; Official Records, I, xliv.
[263] Long, p. 614.
[264] Nevins, p. 254.
[265] Long, p. 620.
[266] Long, p. 621.
[267] Long, p. 621.
[268] Long, p. 621.
[269] Long, p. 623.
[270] Official Records.
[271] Long, pp. 626-627.
[272] Nevins, p. 213.
[273] Foner.
[274] Basler, Vol. VIII, p. 249.
[275] New York Tribune, February 3, 1865.
[276] Long, p. 632.
[277] Long, pp. 631-632.
[278] Long, p. 632; Grant Memoirs, Vol. II, p. 422.
[279] Long, p. 632.
[280] Basler, Vol. VIII, pp. 260-261; Miers, p. 311.
[281] Long, p. 635.
[282] Long, p. 637.
[283] Long, pp. 639-640.
[284] Long, pp. 639-640.
[285] Long, p. 643.
[286] Long, p. 642.
[287] Long, p. 643.
[288] Long, p. 645.
[289] Long, p. 645.
[290] Long, p. 646.
[291] Foner.
[292] Basler, Vol. VIII, pp. 332-333.
[293] Miers, pp. 317-318.
[294] Long, p. 650.
[295] Long, p. 649.
[296] Long, p. 651.
[297] Long, pp. 652-653.
[298] Basler, Collected Works, Vol. VIII, pp. 360-362; Long, p. 653.
[299] Long, pp. 654-656.
[300] Long, pp. 658-659; Sherman’s Memoirs, Vol. II, pp. 325-327.
[301] Long, p. 659.
[302] Long, pp. 661-662.
[303] Long, p. 662.
[304] Long, p. 663.
[305] Basler, Vol. VIII, pp. 384-385.
[306] Long, p. 664.
[307] Long, p. 663.
[308] Long, p. 665; Official Records, Vol. XLVI, pt. 3, p. 508.
[309] Basler, Vol. VIII, p. 385.
[310] Long, p. 666.
[311] Foner.
[312] Miers, pp. 325-326.
[313] Long, p. 670.
[314] Washington Star, April 11-12, 1865; Foner, p. 345.
[315] Basler, Vol. VIII, p. 588.
[316] Long, p. 673.
[317] Long, pp. 675-676; Miers, pp. 329-330.
[318] Long, p. 677; Miers, p. 330; Nicoly and Hay, X, p. 302.
[319] Long, p. 677.
[320] Long, p. 678.
[321] Long, p. 679.
[322] Long, p. 680.
[323] Long, p. 680.
[324] Long, p. 685.
[325] Long, . 686.
[326] Long, pp. 689-690.
[327] Long, p. 690.
[328] Long, pp. 690-691.
[329] Long, p. 692.
[330] Long, p. 694.
[331] Dumond.
[332] Long, p. 696.
[333] Long, p. 696.
[334] Long, p. 696.
[335] Long, p. 696.
[336] Long, p. 696.
[337] Long.
[338] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 275.
[339] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 276.
[340] Finkelman, 2006, vol. 3, p. 408; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 280.
[341] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 25.
[342] Finkelman, 2006.
[343] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 25.
[344] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 25.
[345] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, 25.
[346] Long, p. 696.
[347] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 276.
[348] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 276.
[349] Finkelman, 2006.
[350] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[351] Finkelman, 2006.
[352] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 35.
[353] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 35.
[354] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 38.
[355] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 38.
[356] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 38.
[357] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 33.
[358] Finkelman, 2006.
[359] Finkelman, 2006.
[360] Finkelman, 2006.
[361] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[362] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[363] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[364] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 47.
[365] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 45.
[366] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 42.
[367] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 42.
[368] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[369] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 43.
[370] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 276; Finkelman, 2006, p. 408.
[371] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 279.
[372] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 54.
[373] Finkelman, 2006.
[374] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 55.
[375] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 278; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 54.
[376] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 60.
[377] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 63, 238
[378] Finkelman, 2006.
[379] Finkelman, 2006.
[380] Finkelman, 2006.
[381] Finkelman, 2006; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 54.
[382] Finkelman, 2006; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 280.
[383] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 152
[384] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 76.
[385] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 76.
[386] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 76.
[387] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 76.
[388] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 76-77.
[389] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 281.
[390] Dumond.
[391] Dumond.
[392] Dumond.
[393] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 282.
[394] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 283.
[395] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 283-284.
[396] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 588.
[397] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 152, 238
[398] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 152
[399] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 287.
[400] Dumond, p. 275.
[401] Bergman, 1969, p. 290.
[402] Bergman, 1969, p. 290; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 288.
[403] Bergman, 1969, p. 292.
[404] Bergman, 1969, p. 292.
[405] Fox News, “Senate Apologizes for Not Passing Anti-Lynching Laws,” June 13, 2015.
[406] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 316.
[407] Bergman, 1969, p. 293.
[408] Bergman, 1969, p. 294.
[409] Bergman, 1969, p. 293.
[410] Bergman, 1969, p. 295.
[411] Bergman, 1969, p. 295.
[412] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 290,
[413] Bergman, 1969, p. 296.
[414] Bergman, 1969, p. 296.
[415] Bergman, 1969, p. 296.
[416] Dumond, p. 91.
[417] Bergman, 1969, p. 299; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 288.
[418] Bergman, 1969, p. 299.
[419] Bergman, 1969, p. 299.
[420] Dumond.
[421] Bergman, 1969, p. 300.
[422] Bergman, 1969, p. 300.
[423] Bergman, 1969, p. 300.
[424] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 293.
[425] Bergman, 1969, p. 301.
[426] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 288.
[427] Bergman, 1969, p. 302.
[428] Bergman, 1969, p. 302.
[429] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 238
[430] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 288.
[431] Bergman, 1969, p. 306.
[432] Bergman, 1969, p. 305.
[433] Bergman, 1969, pp. 305-306.
[434] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 589.
[435] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 248.
[436] Bergman, 1969, p. 307.
[437] Bergman, 1969, p. 307.
[438] Bergman, 1969, p. 307.
[439] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 260.
[440] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 261.
[441] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 261.
[442] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 260.
[443] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 295-296.
[444] Bergman, 1969, p. 311.
[445] Bergman, 1969, p. 311.
[446] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 268.
[447] Bergman, 1969, p. 311.
[448] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 277.
[449] Bergman, 1969, p. 313.
[450] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 278.
[451] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 276.
[452] Bergman, 1969, p. 315.
[453] Bergman, 1969, p. 315.
[454] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 285.
[455] Bergman, 1969, p. 315.
[456] Finkelman, 2006, p. 412.
[457] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 297.
[458] Bergman, 1969, p. 317; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 296.
[459] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 296; Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 654, 661.
[460] Moose, 2000, p. 707.
[461] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 306.
[462] Bergman, 1969, p. 319; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 306.
[463] Bergman, 1969, p. 319; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 308.
[464] Bergman, 1969, p. 319.
[465] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 298.
[466] Jenkins, 1969, vol. 2, p. 321; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 597.
[467] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 312.
[468] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 312.
[469] Bergman, 1969, p. 322; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 314-315.
[470] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 313.
[471] Bergman, 1969, p. 322; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 313.
[472] Bergman, 1969, p. 322; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 314.
[473] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 314.
[474] Bergman, 1969, p. 322.
[475] Bergman, 1969, p. 324.
[476] Bergman, 1969, p. 325.
[477] Bergman, 1969, p. 325.
[478] Bergman, 1969, p. 327; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 332
[479] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 332.
[480] Bergman, 1969, p 320.
[481] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 331.
[482] Harley, 1995, p. 198.
[483] Harley, 1995, p. 203.
[484] Harley, 1995, p. 199.
[485] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 331.
[486] National Negro Business League.
[487] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 331.
[488] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 299.
[489] Harley, 1995, p. 198; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 342.
[490] Harley, 1995, p. 199; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 345.
[491] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 343.
[492] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 343.
[493] Bergman, 1969, p. 333.
[494] Bergman, 1969, p. 333.
[495] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 344.
[496] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 299.
[497] Harley, 1995, p. 200; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 349.
[498] Harley, 1995, pp. 200-201.
[499] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 349.
[500] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 350.
[501] Harley, 1995, p. 200.
[502] Harley, 1995, p. 201.
[503] Harley, 1995, p. 201.
[504] Bergman, 1969, p. 339; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 358.
[505] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 358.
[506] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 357.
[507] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 361.
[508] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 362.
[509] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 362.
[510] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 364.
[511] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 364.
[512] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 364.
[513] Harley, 1995, p. 200.
[514] Harley, 1995, p. 205.
[515] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 361.
[516] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 361.
[517] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 363.
[518] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 301.
[519] Harley, 1995, p. 203.
[520] Harley, 1995, p. 202; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 371.
[521] Harley, 1995, p. 202; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 371.
[522] Harley, 1995, p. 202.
[523] Harley, 1995, p. 202.
[524] Bergman, 1969, p. 345.
[525] Bergman, 1969, p. 345.
[526] Bergman, 1969, p. 345.
[527] Bergman, 1969, p. 346; Harley, 1995, p. 203.
[528] Harley, 1995, p. 202; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 371; Moose, 2000, p. 705.
[529] Harley, 1995, p. 204; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 384.
[530] Harley, 1995, p. 204.
[531] Harley, 1995, p. 204.
[532] Harley, 1995, p. 204.
[533] Harley, 1995, p. 204; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 384.
[534] Harley, 1995, p. 204; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 385.
[535] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 348.
[536] Bergman, 1969, p. 349; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 385-386.
[537] Bergman, 1969, p. 349.
[538] Bergman, 1969, p. 349; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 386.
[539] Jenkins, 1969, vol. 2, p. 385.
[540] Bergman, 1969, pp. 347-348; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 384.
[541] Harley, 1995, p. 206.
[542] Harley, 1995, p. 206.
[543] Harley, 1995, p. 206.
[544] Harley, 1995, p. 207.
[545] Harley, 1995, p. 207.
[546] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 392.
[547] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 398.
[548] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 393.
[549] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 401.
[550] Harley, 1995, p. 206.
[551] Harley, 1995, p. 206.
[552] Harley, 1995, p. 207.
[553] Harley, 1995, p. 207.
[554] Harley, 1995, p. 209.
[555] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 385, 402.
[556] Bergman, 1969, p. 353.
[557] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 398.
[558] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 401-402.
[559] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 400.
[560] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 398.
[561] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 303.
[562] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 409.
[563] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 409.
[564] Harley, 1995, p. 208; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 408-409; Moose, 2000, p. 705; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 303.
[565] Harley, 1995, p. 209.
[566] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 420.
[567] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 422.
[568] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 421.
[569] Bergman, 1969, p. 361.
[570] Bergman, 1969, p. 363.
[571] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 422.
[572] Harley, 1995, p. 208.
[573] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 419.
[574] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 420.
[575] Harley, 1995, p. 208.
[576] Bergman, 1969, p. 360.
[577] Harley, 1995, p. 209; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 422.
[578] Bergman, 1969, pp. 364-365; Harley, 1995, p. 208; Moose, 2000, p. 713; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 303.
[579] Harley, 1995, p. 209.
[580] Harley, 1995, p. 210; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 448.
[581] Harley, 1995, p. 210.
[582] Bergman, 1969, p. 365.
[583] Bergman, 1969, p. 365.
[584] Bergman, 1969, p. 365.
[585] Bergman, 1969, pp. 365-366; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 430.
[586] Bergman, 1969, p. 366.
[587] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 429.
[588] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 433.
[589] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 433.
[590] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 434.
[591] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 435.
[592] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 434.
[593] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 420-421.
[594] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 307; Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 439.
[595] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 439.
[596] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 439.
[597] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 439.
[598] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 442.
[599] Bergman, 1969, p. 371.
[600] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 440.
[601] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 448.
[602] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 449.
[603] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 449.
[604] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 451.
[605] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 450.
[606] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 739.
[607] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 455; Wilkerson, 2010.
[608] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 456; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 370.
[609] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 455.
[610] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 456.
[611] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 456.
[612] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 456.
[613] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 451.
[614] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 461.
[615] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 462.
[616] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 457.
[617] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 457.
[618] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 461.
[619] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 456, 461.
[620] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 462.
[621] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, pp. 458-461.
[622] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 97.
[623] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 97.
[624] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 98.
[625] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 98.
[626] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 100.
[627] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 107-108.
[628] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 311.
[629] Bergman, 1969, p. 380; Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 139; Moose, 2000, p. 706.
[630] Bergman, 1969, p. 380; Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 131.
[631] Bergman, 1969, pp. 380-381.
[632] Bergman, 1969, p. 381.
[633] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 130-132.
[634] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 194.
[635] Bergman, 1969, p. 381; Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 131, 381.
[636] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 132.
[637] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 131.
[638] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 133.
[639] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 158.
[640] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 158.
[641] Bergman, 1969, p. 386.
[642] Bergman, 1969, p. 387.
[643] Bergman, 1969, p. 387.
[644] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 158.
[645] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 861.
[646] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 191.
[647] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 192.
[648] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[649] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[650] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[651] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[652] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[653] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 194.
[654] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 195.
[655] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 195.
[656] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 201.
[657] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 201.
[658] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 201.
[659] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 215.
[660] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 200.
[661] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 199-200.
[662] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 190.
[663] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 215.
[664] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 191.
[665] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 194.
[666] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 191-192.
[667] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 192.
[668] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 217-218.
[669] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 192.
[670] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 192.
[671] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 194, 318.
[672] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 195-196.
[673] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 229.
[674] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 230.
[675] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 193.
[676] National Urban League website [http://nul.iamempowered.com/who-we-are/mission-and-history], accessed 6/3/2018.
[677] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 230.
[678] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 252.
[679] Bergman, 1969, p. 397.
[680] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 235-236.
[681] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 253.
[682] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 230-231.
[683] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 243.
[684] Bergman, 1969, p. 396; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 368.
[685] Sinha, 2016.
[686] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 368.
[687] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 369.
[688] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 255.
[689] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 255-256.
[690] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 282.
[691] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 282-283.
[692] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 260.
[693] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 256.
[694] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 259.
[695] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 258.
[696] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 261.
[697] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 739.
[698] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 285.
[699] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 285.
[700] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 291.
[701] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 311.
[702] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 315.
[703] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 289.
[704] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 289.
[705] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 285.
[706] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 313.
[707] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 313.
[708] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 317.
[709] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 317.
[710] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 319.
[711] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 319.
[712] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 319.
[713] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 321.
[714] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 317.
[715] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 314.
[716] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 370.
[717] Moose, 2000, p. 706; Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 318.
[718] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 313-314.
[719] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 315.
[720] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 316.
[721] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 282.
[722] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 373.
[723] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 350-351.
[724] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 373.
[725] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 353.
[726] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 315.
[727] Moose, 2000, p. 706.
[728] Moose, 2000, p. 706.
[729] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 375.
[730] Branch, 1988, pp. 48-49.
[731] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 739.
[732] Bergman, 1969, p. 477.
[733] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 316.
[734] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 379.
[735] Moose, 2000, p. 711.
[736] http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/snhtml/snintro00.html
[737] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 395.
[738] Moose, 2000, pp. 706-707.
[739] Bergman, 1969, p. 487.
[740] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 401.
[741] Bergman, 1969, p. 486.
[742] Bergman, 1969, p. 488.
[743] Bergman, 1969, pp. 488-489.
[744] Bergman, 1969, p. 490.
[745] Bergman, 1969, p. 490.
[746] Wilkerson, 2010.
[747] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 412.
[748] Astor, Gerald, 1998.
[749] Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, 1982, Personal Justice Denied.
[750] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 421.
[751] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 508, 514.
[752] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 421.
[753] Moose, 2000, p. 706.
[754] Jenkins, 1998, vol. 2, p. 421.
[755] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 498-499.
[756] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 498-499.
[757] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 499.
[758] Bergman, 1969, pp. 522-523.
[759] Bergman, 1969, p. 525.
[760] Washington, Timothy. “60th Anniversary: How Korean War Rapidly Integrated U.S. Military.” Black Star News, September 19, 2013.
[761] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 502.
[762] Moose, 2000, p. 706; Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 504.
[763] Branch, 1988.
[764] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 506.
[765] Branch, 1988.
[766] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 508.
[767] Branch, 1988.
[768] Branch, 1988.
[769] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 507-508.
[770] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 507.
[771] Bergman, 1969, p. 562.
[772] Bergman, 1969, p. 562.
[773] Bergman, 1969, p. 563.
[774] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 509.
[775] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 508.
[776] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 509.
[777] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 510.
[778] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 507-508.
[779] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 260.
[780] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 510.
[781] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 511.
[782] Branch, 1988, pp. 604, 635, 639.
[783] Branch, 1988, pp. 583, 585, 589-590.
[784] Branch, 1988, pp. 600-601.
[785] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 511.
[786] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 511.
[787] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 511.
[788] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 512.
[789] Branch, 1988, pp. 763-764, 772-773, 786-788.
[790] Branch, 1988, pp. 734-740, 742-745, 784-787.
[791] Branch, Taylor, 1988, pp. 876-883.
[792] Branch, 1988.
[793] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 511.
[794] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 512.
[795] Morris and Morris, p. 512.
[796] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 512.
[797] Branch, 1988.
[798] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 512-513.
[799] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 512.
[800] Branch, 1988.
[801] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 513.
[802] Branch, 1988.
[803] Oxford Companion to American Military History, 1999.
[804] Astor, 1998.
[805] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 258.
[806] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 282.
[807] Branch, 1988.
[808] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 513.
[809] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 514
[810] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 513-514.
[811] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 514
[812] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515
[813] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 514.
[814] Branch, 1988.
[815] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 512.
[816] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515.
[817] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 514.
[818] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 514.
[819] Branch, 1988.
[820] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 549, 1078.
[821] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515.
[822] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515.
[823] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 353.
[824] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515.
[825] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515. Branch, 1988.
[826] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 515.
[827] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 517.
[828] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 260.
[829] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 518, 664.
[830] Moose, 2000, p. 708.
[831] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 520.
[832] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 521.
[833] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 522.
[834] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 527.
[835] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 527.
[836] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 531.
[837] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 258.
[838] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 534.
[839] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 354.
[840] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 536.
[841] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 539.
[842] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 541-542.
[843] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 542.
[844] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, p. 353.
[845] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 543.
[846] Architect of the Capitol. [https://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/busts/martin-luther-king-jr-bust]
[847] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 551.
[848] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 542.
[849] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 548.
[850] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 542.
[851] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 542.
[852] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 551.
[853] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 552.
[854] Morris and Morris, 1996, pp. 552-553.
[855] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 549.
[856] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 549.
[857] Morris and Morris, 1996, p. 550.
[858] http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail/28866?ret=True
[859] Jenkins, 2001, vol. 3, pp. 311-312.
[860] https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_32_00039.htm
[861] http://history.house.gov/Collection/Detail/30296?ret=True
[862] Architect of the Capitol. [https://www.aoc.gov/art/busts/sojourner-truth-bust]
[863] https://www.aoc.gov/art/other/slave-labor-commemorative-marker
[864] Architect of the Capitol. [https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-statues/rosa-parks]
[865] Architect of the Capitol. [https://www.aoc.gov/art/other-statues/frederick-douglass]
[866] Berman, Mark. “Alabama governor has Confederate flag removed from state Capitol grounds.” Washington Post, June 24, 2015.
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[900] Connolly, Daniel and Vivian Wang. “Confederate Statues in Memphis Are Removed After City Council Vote. New York Times, December 20, 2017. [Downloaded 4/15/2018 from nytimes.com.]
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