The Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional in an 8-1 decision, ruling that the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments do not empower Congress to outlaw racial discrimination by private individuals—thereby legitimizing the Jim Crow system of racial segregation that will …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph P. BradleyJohn Marshall Harlanjudicial-capturecivil-rights-destructionreconstruction-sabotageinstitutional-racismwhite-supremacy
Former U.S. Senator Roscoe Conkling, who had twice refused Supreme Court appointments to pursue his lucrative Gilded Age law practice, argued before the Court in San Mateo County v. Southern Pacific Railroad that the Fourteenth Amendment’s framers intentionally used “person” rather …
Roscoe ConklingU.S. Supreme CourtSouthern Pacific RailroadSan Mateo CountyJoint Committee on Reconstructioncorporate-personhoodsupreme-courtfourteenth-amendmentlegal-corruptiongilded-age+2 more
President Chester A. Arthur signs the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first significant federal law restricting immigration into the United States based on race and nationality. The law prohibits all immigration of Chinese laborers—defined as “both skilled and unskilled laborers and Chinese …
Chester A. ArthurU.S. CongressChinese immigrant workersLabor unionsWest Coast employersimmigration-policyracismlabor-suppressiongilded-agescapegoating+1 more
On January 2, 1882, John D. Rockefeller and 40 other investors signed the Standard Oil Trust Agreement, creating the first modern corporate monopoly structure that controlled 90% of American oil refining. The trust pooled securities from 40 companies under nine trustees—John and William Rockefeller, …
John D. RockefellerStandard Oil CompanyHenry FlaglerSamuel C. T. DoddWilliam Rockefellercorporate-powermonopolytrust-formationgilded-ageinstitutional-capture
Charles J. Guiteau shoots President James A. Garfield at 9:30 AM on July 2, 1881, at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C., less than four months into Garfield’s presidency. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office-seeker who distributed copies of a speech …
James A. GarfieldCharles J. GuiteauChester A. ArthurJames Blainesystematic-corruptionpatronage-systempolitical-violenceinstitutional-capture
President James A. Garfield launches an investigation in April 1881 into the Star Route scandal, a massive postal fraud scheme that has defrauded the Post Office of $4 million through rigged bidding on rural mail delivery contracts. The scandal involves a ring of contractors, brokers, and appointed …
James A. GarfieldThomas J. BradyStephen W. DorseyChester A. ArthurBradley Barlowsystematic-corruptiongilded-agepostal-fraudelite-impunity
George M. Pullman establishes the town of Pullman, Illinois, just outside Chicago city limits as one of the most substantial and comprehensive company towns in the United States. Entirely company-owned, the town provides housing, stores, a library, churches, parks, and entertainment facilities for …
George PullmanPullman Palace Car CompanyCompany town workersgilded-agecompany-townscorporate-controllabor-suppressionpaternalism+1 more
Lieutenant Richard Henry Pratt opens the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania under U.S. government authorization, establishing the blueprint for more than 400 federal Indian boarding schools nationwide designed to forcibly assimilate Native American children through cultural …
Lieutenant Richard Henry PrattU.S. GovernmentWar DepartmentBureau of Indian Affairsindigenous-genocidecultural-genocideforced-assimilationinstitutional-abuseboarding-schools
Samuel C. T. Dodd, chief attorney for Standard Oil Company, developed a revolutionary legal structure in 1879 that adapted the common law instrument of a trust to create the modern business trust, circumventing Ohio’s anti-trust laws and state restrictions on interstate corporate ownership. …
Samuel C. T. DoddJohn D. RockefellerStandard Oil Companycorporate-powerlegal-innovationregulatory-evasioninstitutional-capturetrust-formation
President Rutherford B. Hayes signs the Posse Comitatus Act into law on June 18, 1878, restricting the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic law. Passed as an amendment to an army appropriations bill following the end of Reconstruction, the Act prohibits using the Army, Navy, Marine …
Rutherford B. HayesU.S. Congressreconstruction-sabotagemilitary-policycivil-rights-destructioninstitutional-capture
Congress overrides President Rutherford B. Hayes’s veto on February 28, 1878, to enact the Bland-Allison Act, requiring the U.S. Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million of silver bullion each month and mint it into legal tender silver dollars. The Act represents a partial …
Richard P. BlandWilliam B. AllisonRutherford B. HayesU.S. Congressmonetary-policycorporate-influencefinancial-system-capturegilded-age
The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 begins when Baltimore & Ohio Railroad workers walk off the job in response to a 10% wage cut—the second reduction in eight months during the severe economic depression following the Panic of 1873. The strike spreads rapidly across the nation’s rail …
Baltimore & Ohio RailroadRutherford B. HayesU.S. ArmyRailroad workersState militiaslabor-suppressiongilded-agerailroad-strikefederal-interventionmilitary-force+1 more
Ten Irish-American coal miners were hanged in Pennsylvania on “Black Thursday,” the first mass execution in a coordinated corporate-state campaign against labor organizing. In 1873, Reading Railroad President Franklin B. Gowen hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to infiltrate the Molly …
Pinkerton Detective AgencyFranklin B. GowenPhiladelphia & Reading RailroadJames McParlanPennsylvania Courtslabor-suppressioncorporate-powerjudicial-corruptiongilded-ageinstitutional-capture
In March 1877, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Munn v. Illinois (94 U.S. 113), affirming in a 7-2 decision that states possess constitutional authority to regulate private industries when such regulation serves the public good. Chief Justice Morrison Waite wrote for the majority that because grain …
U.S. Supreme CourtMorrison WaiteNational GrangeIllinois LegislatureMunn & Scottregulatory-frameworksupreme-courtgranger-movementdemocratic-resistancepublic-interest
Congress passes the Act of February 28, 1877, implementing an “agreement” signed by only 10 percent of adult male Sioux—far below the three-fourths (75%) threshold explicitly required by the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty for any cession of reservation lands. The Act strips over 7 million …
U.S. CongressSioux NationLakota peoplePresident Ulysses S. Granttreaty-violationsindigenous-genocideland-theftinstitutional-corruptioncongressional-capture
Northern Republicans and Southern Democrats meet secretly at Wormley’s Hotel in Washington to negotiate the Compromise of 1877—an unwritten political deal settling the disputed 1876 presidential election by abandoning federal protection of Black civil rights. Southern Democrats agree to accept …
Rutherford B. Hayes (President-elect)Southern DemocratsNorthern RepublicansDisenfranchised Black Americansdemocratic-erosioninstitutional-captureracial-injusticepolitical-corruption
Over 100 armed white men—members of paramilitary “rifle clubs” called the Red Shirts—attack approximately 30 Black National Guard servicemen at the Hamburg, South Carolina armory on July 8, 1876, killing seven men (six of them Black) in what becomes the first of a series of planned civil …
Red ShirtsBenjamin TillmanWade Hampton IIIMatthew ButlerBlack National Guard Militiaracial-terrorismreconstruction-sabotagewhite-supremacydemocratic-erosionelite-impunity
The Supreme Court unanimously overturns the federal convictions of Colfax Massacre perpetrators in United States v. Cruikshank, ruling that the Bill of Rights does not limit private actors or state governments despite the Fourteenth Amendment—effectively destroying federal power to protect Black …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph P. BradleyColfax Massacre Perpetratorsjudicial-capturereconstruction-sabotagecivil-rights-destructionwhite-supremacyinstitutional-capture
The House of Representatives votes to impeach Secretary of War William W. Belknap on March 2, 1876—just minutes after he races to the White House, hands President Grant his resignation, and bursts into tears. Belknap becomes the first cabinet secretary in U.S. history to be impeached for his role in …
William W. BelknapUlysses S. GrantCaleb MarshHiester ClymerU.S. House of Representativessystematic-corruptionexecutive-branch-corruptioninstitutional-captureelite-impunity
On May 10, 1875, Treasury Secretary Benjamin H. Bristow conducted coordinated raids across the nation that exposed the Whiskey Ring—a massive conspiracy involving whiskey distillers, Treasury Department officials, and politicians who had been systematically defrauding the federal government of tax …
Benjamin H. BristowOrville BabcockUlysses S. GrantTreasury DepartmentWhiskey Distillerssystematic-corruptiontax-evasioninstitutional-captureexecutive-branch-corruption
Andrew Carnegie opened the Edgar Thomson Steel Works in Braddock, Pennsylvania, in 1875, effectively introducing the Bessemer steelmaking process to the United States at industrial scale and launching his steel empire. Construction had begun in 1872, with the mill beginning rail production in 1874. …
Andrew CarnegieEdgar Thomson Steel Workscorporate-powersteel-industryvertical-integrationgilded-ageindustrial-consolidation
An estimated 150-300 Black citizens and two white citizens are killed during the Vicksburg massacre, a coordinated campaign of white supremacist violence that begins on December 7, 1874, and continues until around January 5, 1875, in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The massacre follows the forced …
White LeaguePeter CrosbyAndrew J. GilmerUlysses S. Grantwhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-racismelite-impunity
On November 18, 1874, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in response to the “Woman’s Crusade,” a series of temperance demonstrations that had swept through New York and much of the Midwest in 1873-74. The WCTU initially focused …
Frances WillardAnnie WittenmyerWoman's Christian Temperance UnionLiquor Industrywomens-suffragetemperance-movementcorporate-oppositionsocial-reformliquor-industry
The White League stages an armed insurrection against Louisiana’s Reconstruction government on September 14, 1874, in New Orleans. Five thousand White League members—Confederate veterans organized as “the military arm of the Democratic Party”—overwhelm 3,500 state police and …
White LeagueJames LongstreetWilliam Pitt KelloggUlysses S. GrantJohn McEnerywhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-captureelite-impunity
On August 30, 1874, the White League—a paramilitary organization of Confederate veterans described as “the military arm of the Democratic Party”—completes a weeklong campaign of terror in Red River Parish, Louisiana, by assassinating six white Republican officeholders and five to twenty …
White LeagueDick ColemanThomas FloydMarshall TwitchellLouisiana Board of Tradewhite-supremacyreconstruction-sabotagepolitical-violenceinstitutional-captureelite-impunity
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads a 1,000-man military expedition into the Black Hills of South Dakota in direct violation of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty, which guaranteed the Sioux Nation “absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy” of all land west of the Missouri River …
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong CusterU.S. ArmySioux NationHoratio Ross (prospector)President Ulysses S. Granttreaty-violationsindigenous-genocidemilitary-expansiongold-rushsacred-sites+1 more
Congress officially repeals the congressional portion of the Salary Grab Act on January 20, 1874, sustaining only the salary increases for the President and Supreme Court Justices. The repeal comes after months of intense public fury over the March 1873 legislation that doubled congressional …
U.S. CongressUlysses S. GrantElihu Washburnesystematic-corruptionlegislative-corruptiongilded-ageelite-impunity
William “Boss” Tweed is convicted on 204 counts of corruption in his second trial, held ironically in the still-incomplete courthouse built with funds he helped steal. His first trial in January 1873 ended with a hung jury despite overwhelming evidence. The November conviction results in …
William "Boss" TweedNew York Court SystemDavid Dudley Field II (Defense)Elihu Root (Defense)systematic-corruptionweak-accountabilitypolitical-machines
The banking firm Jay Cooke & Company collapses, triggering a devastating financial panic and economic depression lasting until 1879. Cooke’s firm, heavily invested in the Northern Pacific Railroad and backed by over 60 million acres of federal land grants used as collateral, becomes …
Jay Cooke & CompanyNorthern Pacific RailroadNew York Stock ExchangeEuropean Investorseconomic-crisissystematic-corruptioncorporate-welfarefinancial-manipulation
The Supreme Court issues a 5-4 decision in the Slaughterhouse Cases, its first major interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment, drastically narrowing the Privileges or Immunities Clause to exclude most individual rights. The ruling upholds Louisiana’s grant of a slaughterhouse monopoly to one …
U.S. Supreme CourtLouisiana LegislatureCrescent City Livestock CompanyNew Orleans Butchersinstitutional-capturelegal-system-weaponizationcorporate-influencedemocratic-erosion
On Easter Sunday, April 13, 1873, a mob of approximately 300 armed white men—including members of the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of White Camellia—attacks the Grant Parish courthouse in Colfax, Louisiana, murdering an estimated 150 Black Americans in what becomes the deadliest single incident of …
White Supremacist MilitiaKu Klux KlanKnights of White CamelliaGrant Parish Black Militiaracial-terrorismreconstruction-sabotagewhite-supremacymass-violencedemocratic-erosion
The U.S. House of Representatives launches an investigation into the Credit Mobilier scandal following the September 1872 New York Sun exposé revealing systematic bribery of congressmen with railroad company stock. The investigation examines how Congressman Oakes Ames distributed discounted Credit …
U.S. House of RepresentativesOakes Ames (Congressman)James Brooks (Congressman)Poland Committeesystematic-corruptioninstitutional-capturepolitical-briberyweak-accountability
On November 5, 1872, Susan B. Anthony voted in the presidential election between Ulysses S. Grant and his opponent in Rochester, New York, along with 14 other women, in a deliberate act of civil disobedience designed to test whether the 14th Amendment granted women voting rights as citizens. Four …
Susan B. AnthonyWard HuntJohn Van VoorhisSylvester LewisUlysses S. Grantwomens-suffragejudicial-capturecivil-disobedienceconstitutional-lawdemocratic-exclusion
On September 4, 1872, the New York Sun published a blockbuster exposé under the headline “The King of Frauds,” revealing a massive corruption scheme involving Union Pacific Railroad executives, a dummy construction company called Credit Mobilier of America, and approximately one dozen …
Oakes AmesSchuyler ColfaxUnion Pacific RailroadCredit Mobilier of AmericaUlysses S. Grant Administrationsystematic-corruptioninstitutional-captureinfrastructure-profiteeringcongressional-bribery
Between February 17 and March 28, 1872, in what became known as the ‘Cleveland Massacre,’ John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil acquired 22 of the 26 competing oil refineries in Cleveland, Ohio—a brutal six-week consolidation campaign that established the template for monopolistic …
John D. RockefellerStandard Oil CompanyHenry FlaglerSouth Improvement Companycorporate-powermonopolygilded-agepredatory-pricingmarket-manipulation
Harper’s Weekly publishes Thomas Nast’s devastating political cartoon “The BRAINS,” depicting Boss Tweed as a corpulent figure with a bag of money for his head. The image crystallizes public outrage over Tammany Hall corruption, making the abstract concept of systematic graft …
Thomas NastHarper's WeeklyWilliam "Boss" TweedTammany Hallsystematic-corruptionmedia-resistancepublic-accountability
The New York Times publishes its first article with documented proof of the Tweed Ring’s massive corruption, headlined “MORE RING VILLIANY.” Publisher George Jones obtains incriminating receipts and accounting records stolen by a disgruntled Tammany functionary denied his expected …
New York TimesGeorge Jones (Publisher)William "Boss" TweedTammany Hallsystematic-corruptioninstitutional-capturepolitical-machineswhistleblower-retaliation
President Ulysses S. Grant signs the Ku Klux Klan Act (Third Enforcement Act) on April 20, 1871, granting the federal government unprecedented power to combat terrorist organizations denying Americans their constitutional rights. The Act—passed by the 42nd Congress alongside the First Enforcement …
Ulysses S. Grant42nd United States CongressAmos AkermanKu Klux Klanreconstructionfederal-enforcementracial-terrorismcivil-rights-protection
John D. Rockefeller incorporated the Standard Oil Company in Ohio with $1 million in capital, transforming an 1863 partnership into what would become America’s most powerful monopoly. The company was formed with Rockefeller, his brother William, Henry Flagler, Samuel Andrews, and other …
John D. RockefellerStandard Oil CompanyHenry FlaglerSamuel AndrewsWilliam Rockefellercorporate-powermonopolygilded-ageoil-industryinstitutional-capture
On December 10, 1869, Wyoming Territory’s all-male territorial legislature passed “An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage, and to Hold Office,” making Wyoming the first place in the United States to grant women full voting rights since New Jersey …
On September 24, 1869—Black Friday—Jay Gould and James Fisk’s conspiracy to corner the gold market collapsed when the U.S. Treasury released $4 million in gold reserves, crashing the price from $163.50 to $133 per $100 in gold specie and triggering a financial panic that ruined hundreds of …
Jay GouldJames FiskPresident Ulysses S. GrantAbel CorbinU.S. Treasuryfinancial-manipulationmarket-manipulationpolitical-corruptiongilded-agesystematic-corruption
On May 15, 1869, the women’s rights movement fractured when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony formed the National Woman Suffrage Association (NWSA) after breaking with the American Equal Rights Association (AERA) over support for the 15th Amendment. The proposed amendment would …
Susan B. AnthonyElizabeth Cady StantonLucy StoneHenry BlackwellFrederick Douglass+2 morewomens-suffrageinstitutional-racismdemocratic-expansionreconstructionpolitical-fracture
The Fourteenth Amendment is ratified after Louisiana and South Carolina provide the necessary three-fourths majority, extending citizenship and equal protection rights to formerly enslaved people. While designed to guarantee civil rights to Black Americans, the amendment’s broad …
U.S. CongressLouisiana LegislatureSouth Carolina LegislatureReconstruction Governmentsinstitutional-capturelegal-system-weaponizationcorporate-influencedemocratic-erosion
The United States Government and the Sioux Nation sign the Fort Laramie Treaty, establishing the Great Sioux Reservation and guaranteeing the Sioux “absolute and undisturbed use and occupancy” of all present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River, including the sacred Black Hills …
The Erie War reached its climax in early March 1868 when Jay Gould, James Fisk, and Daniel Drew, facing arrest warrants from Judge George Barnard after issuing $5 million in fraudulent Erie Railroad stock, fled across the Hudson River to Jersey City with $7 million in cash and watered stock …
Jay GouldJames FiskDaniel DrewCornelius VanderbiltErie Railroad+2 morecorporate-fraudstock-manipulationpolitical-corruptiongilded-agerailroad-consolidation
The House of Representatives votes 126-47 to impeach President Andrew Johnson on February 24, 1868—the first presidential impeachment in American history. The precipitating event is Johnson’s February 21 attempt to fire Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and replace him with Lorenzo Thomas in …
Andrew JohnsonEdwin StantonU.S. House of RepresentativesRadical RepublicansLorenzo Thomas+1 morereconstruction-sabotagepresidential-corruptioninstitutional-capturedemocratic-erosion
In 1867, Cornelius Vanderbilt gained control of the New York Central Railroad after driving down its stock price, then combined it with his New York and Harlem Railroad and Hudson River Railroad to create one of the first giant railroad consolidations in American history. Vanderbilt had entered the …
Cornelius VanderbiltNew York Central RailroadHudson River RailroadHarlem Railroadrailroad-consolidationcorporate-powergilded-agemonopolyinfrastructure-capture
President Andrew Johnson vetoes legislation to extend and expand the Freedmen’s Bureau, shocking Republican supporters and demonstrating his commitment to sabotaging Reconstruction. Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull introduced the bill on January 5, 1866, to expand the Bureau’s power to …
Andrew JohnsonLyman TrumbullRepublican CongressFreedmen's Bureaureconstruction-sabotagepresidential-corruptioninstitutional-captureracial-injustice
Alabama Governor Robert Patton authorizes convict leasing, declaring that Black prisoners “should feel the hardship of labor in iron and coal mines” rather than mere confinement. The state begins leasing prisoners to private companies that pay monthly fees while providing minimal food, …
Robert Patton (Alabama Governor)Alabama State LegislatureCoal Mining CompaniesRailroad Companiesprison-industrial-complexsystematic-corruptioninstitutional-captureracial-injustice
Six Confederate veterans found the Ku Klux Klan on December 24, 1865, in Pulaski, Tennessee—creating what historians characterize as America’s first terrorist organization. The founders—Calvin E. Jones, John B. Kennedy, Frank O. McCord, John C. Lester, Richard P. Reed, and James R. …
Nathan Bedford ForrestConfederate VeteransCalvin E. JonesJohn B. KennedyFrank O. McCord+3 moreracial-terrorismreconstruction-sabotagewhite-supremacypolitical-violenceinstitutional-capture