1865
Washington, DC, DC · On map
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865, at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC, just six days after General Lee’s surrender. His death removed a leader who had advocated for gradual Reconstruction with some protections for freedpeople, and his successor Andrew Johnson pursued a more lenient policy toward the South. The assassination intensified racial and political tensions during the early Reconstruction period.
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