Shaw University is founded in Holly Springs, Michigan. It is later renamed Rust University.

Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell become the first African Americans elected to a state legislature, winning seats in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee held its first classes on this day. The school was founded to provide recently freed slaves with the opportunity for an education.

Lincoln University is founded by members of the 62nd and 65th Colored Infantry in Jefferson City, Missouri.

The first Bishop of the African Orthodox Church, George Alexander McGuire, was born on this date in Antigua. McGuire founded the African Orthodox Church in America.

Overriding President Andrew Johnson's veto, Congress puts into law the first Civil Rights Act, declaring freed blacks to be citizens and abolishing black codes.

A Black Code was established on this date in Texas. It stated that all criminal prosecutions against Blacks should be conducted in the same manner as prosecutions against Whites, and Blacks shall be subject to the similar penalties.

Historically Black College Fisk University opened on this date in Nashville, Tennessee. Fisk was founded as a liberal arts institution committed to educating newly freed slaves. Fisk has many distinguished alumni including W.E.B. DuBois, Nikki Giovanni, and John Hope Franklin.

Three days of race riots, one of the bloodiest outbreaks of Reconstruction, leave forty-six blacks and two whites dead, five black women raped, and hundreds of homes, churches and schools are destroyed by fires. The riots are sparked by whites fearing nearby Fort Pickering, a nearby base for black troops. The white citizens felt threatened by the presence of black troops patrolling the city.

Congress passes the Southern Homestead Act, which opens up public lands in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisina, Arkansas and Florida to settlers of all races.

Matthew Alexander Henson is born on this date. He will go on to accompany Robert E. Peary and four Inuit guides to the North Pole from 1908 to 1909.

The 9th and 10th Cavalry units of Black Civil War veterans were organized on this date.

Howard University was founded on this date in Washington, D.C. The school was originally intended to be a seminary, but it expanded to include and provide a liberal arts education.

Composer and arranger Harry T. Burleigh was born on this date in Erie, Pennsylvania.