The establishment of the “Black Codes” so enraged northern Republicans that the repeal of these laws was mandatory for readmittance into the Union. Adopted by the Mississippi Legislature in November 1865, the “Act to Confer Civil Rights on Freedmen,” or Black Code, denied the rights of citizenship to African Americans.
1866: Congress refuses to seat Southern delegations, including Mississippi’s
1866: Mississippi Legislature repeals its Black Code
The Black Codes were the forerunners to the more formal Jim Crow “separate but equal” laws of the 20th century. Enacted following the Civil War, the codes varied from place to place and included such restrictions as curfews, poll taxes, and papers that certified employment.
1866: Freedmen’s Aid Society of Methodist Episcopal Church establishes school in Holly Springs
Rust University
The school was chartered as Shaw University in 1870 and changed to Rust University in 1882. It later became Rust College (1915).
Link to the catalog1866: United States Congress passes Civil Rights Act of 1866
The act granted further rights to freed slaves and declared all persons born in the United States to be citizens.
April 25, 1866: Women of Columbus decorate Union and Confederate soldiers’ graves
Decoration Day Ladies
This gesture is said to have evolved into Memorial Day, the annual day of recognition of fallen solders.
Image: Jane Fontaine, Martha Elizabeth Morton (seated left to right), Kate McCarthy Hill Cooper, and Augusta Murdock Sykes Cox (standing, left to right) organized the first joint decoration of Confederate and Union soldiers’ graves in Columbus.