Although the official end of the Civil War was at Appomattox on April 9, 1865, not all enslaved Blacks knew until June 19, 1865, when General Lee finally arrived at Galveston, Texas to notify the last enslaved African Americans of their .

Today, we celebrate this day as , which most recently became a national holiday in 2021 due to the activism of #BLM protestors.

The Reconstruction Era refers to the period the Civil War when attempts were made to redress [fix] the inequities of slavery and its political, social, and economic legacy.

The U.S. federal government also needed to determine how to the 11 Confederate states back into the Union.

After the war, formerly enslaved African Americans responded to freedom in different ways. After celebrating the end of the war and their new freedom, most tried to with their separated families.

Some set up new institutions, including schools, while participating in politics by voting and even serving in government.

Although formerly enslaved African Americans were land and resources from the government to set up their own farms, most did not receive these. Some who did receive land and resources later had them taken away.

Newly freed people had to figure out how to survive and support their families.

For about 10 years after the Civil War, the federal government provided such as finding employment, housing, and education to the formerly enslaved and took steps under Reconstruction to protect their political and civil rights, but these advances were later overturned.

During the 1870s, more than a African American men were elected to the U.S. Congress. This was historically significant because many of these newly freed were born into slavery, but this period ended all too quickly.

Despite the gains Black people made following the Civil War, against these new rights grew stronger in the .

emerged that were intentionally designed to keep Black people from using their voting rights .

The was established as a defining organization of the Reconstruction era. It sought to counter the progress of African Americans by using and against African-American leaders.