Southern states secede and create the Confederate States of America.

The Civil War takes place and ends with the surrender of the South and formal end to slavery.

The first colleges for African Americans were established largely through the efforts of black churches with the support of the American Missionary Association and the Freedmen’s Bureau. The second Morrill Act of 1890 required states—especially former confederate states—to provide land-grants for institutions for black students if admission was not allowed elsewhere. As a result, many Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were founded. Between 1861-1900, more than 90 institutions of higher learning were established, among them Shaw University, Morehouse College, and Hampton University.

In the Reconstruction Era, the end of slavery gives way to sharecropping. Cotton continues to be a major crop for the South.

The Southern Education Fund (formerly the Peabody Education Fund) is established to aid in the education of the South, namely newly freed African American slaves.

Jim Crow laws are passed in the South which codify racial segregation and limit access to voting, education, and jobs for many Black Southerners.

In 1912, Booker T. Washington joined forces with philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to build rural schools for African American children across the segregated south. That partnership resulted in more than 5,300 schools, vocational shops, and teacher’s homes across 15 Southern states from 1912-1932.

The Great Migration sees the movement of more than 6 million African Americans in the South to Northern cities.

The agarian economy, especially cotton farms, begin to decline as manufacturing and other industries begin to grow in the "New South."

The Civil Rights Movement brings dramatic social and political change to the country as African Americans seek to secure legal rights and fight segregation and Jim Crow laws in the South.

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the Birmingham campaign help build momentum that ultmately leads to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Selma to Montgomery marches demonstrate the desire of African American citizens to exercise their constitutional right to vote, in defiance of segregationist repression. Part of a broader voting rights movement throughout the American South, the marches contributed to passage year of the Voting Rights Act.

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits racial discrimination in voting.

It is estimated that a million and a half African Americans registered to vote in this period. In 1965, the South has fewer than 100 black elected officials; by 1972, the region has 873 black officeholders.

In the Loving case, the Supreme Court strikes down Virgina's law against interracial marriage.

Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.

Despite legislation promoting desegregation and civil rights, a 1968 survey found that eighty-three percent of whites said they preferred a system with no integration.