Black History Month Part Three

In December of 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln suggested a plan to reinstate the seceded states back into the Union, his "Ten Percent Plan."

He would permit each Confederate state to form a new state government after ten percent of the voters in a state took loyalty oaths to the Union and recognized the former slaves' freedom.

Following Lincoln's assassination on April 9, 1865, his successor, former Vice-President Andrew Johnson, decided to run with Lincoln's Ten Percent Plan.

Throughout the summer and fall of 1866, the Southern states held special state con...