civil war

1861: The Civil War begins. 1863: January 1, Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. 1865: Civil War ends. Lincoln assassinated (April15). Freedman's Bureau, to help former slaves, established. Ku Klux Klan organize in Pulaski, Tenn. The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified stating that "neither slavery nor involuntary servitude....shall exist" in the United States. 1867: Some 2,000 Chinese working on the Central Pacific Railroad strike for better pay. "Chinese Mary" is burned to death for her gold by whites in …

…employers discriminatory intent. In Shaw v. Reno , a sharply divided High Court rules that legislative districts drawn in a "bizarre" fashion in order to create black representation can violate the constitutional rights of white voters to equal protection of the law. The ruling, which invalidates North Carolina's majority African American 12th congressional district, is seen as opening the door to challenges of other states' reapportionment plans that are aimed at equalizing the distribution of power.