- On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, an executive order that proclaimed the freedom of enslaved African Americans in states that had seceded from the Union. Over two years later, the Civil War was ended, and by December of 1865, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, abolishing slavery in the United States.

Each of these steps helped nearly 4 million former slaves gain their freedom. These African Americans faced a long, difficult road to independence, and for many it was a challenge even to find shelter and work. One of the first steps President Lincoln took to help them was urging Congress to establish the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, more commonly known as the Freedmen's Bureau in March of 1865. The Bureau helped former slave secure jobs by drawing up labor contracts and providing temporary housing, food, and medical care. It was also tasked with reuniting families that were separated during the Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau legalized marriages and kept detailed records that are housed in the National Archives to this day.

But perhaps its greatest achievement was in education. The Freedmen's Bureau established thousands of freedmen's schools in the South, increasing Black literacy to above 30%. It also built several colleges that are known today as historically Black colleges and universities, like Fisk University in Tennessee and Howard University in Washington, DC, granting more than 1,000 college degrees to African Americans by 1872.

The Freedmen's Bureau's accomplishments did not come easy. Its efforts were not supported by the majority of white Southerners, and many white Northerners were ambivalent toward its goals. After President Lincoln was assassinated, Vice President Johnson took his place. As a Southerner, Johnson had little sympathy for the former slaves. He quickly cut funding to the already unpopular program. At the same time, white people that worked for the Freedmen's Bureau often had to deal with ridicule. Even so, many Bureau workers stayed in the South, helping the reconstruction effort by getting involved in politics, renting homes, and rebuilding their own lives and the economy as well.

While the lack of funding contributed to the disbandment of the Freedmen's Bureau in 1872, its influence is noteworthy. For many African Americans, the services of the Freedmen's Bureau were a vital source of support as they created new lives and sought to claim their new freedoms.