Slavery and the Making of America . Timeline | PBS

Two African Americans sit in the Massachusetts Legislature. It is the first time black representatives have participated in this branch of American government.

1866
Congress passes an act to expand the Freedmen’s Bureau. Johnson vetoes the act, but again Congress overrides his veto.

1866
Johnson meets with a delegation headed by Frederick Douglass to discuss the issue of black suffrage.

1866
The U.S. Army creates black cavalry and infantry regiments.

1866
Nearly 15,000 people gather in the nation’s capitol to celebrate Emancipation.

1866
The former Confederate States enact “Black code” laws to counteract the thirteenth amendment.

1866
Congress votes to readmit Tennessee after its ratification of the fourteenth amendment.

1866
Race riots take place in Memphis, Tennessee and New Orleans, Louisiana.

1866
The Ku Klux Klan is founded in Tennessee.