"When the measure finally passed in 1865, it included the supervision of lands confiscated by the Union during the Civil War. The following year, Congress moved to broaden the bureau’s powers with more stringent civil rights laws but they were vetoed by President Andrew Johnson. Unlike his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln, Johnson remained sympathetic to pro-slavery Southerners and obstinate in matters of national reconstruction.

Fortunately, the Freedmen’s Bureau succeeded in finding work and shelter for many freed Southern blacks…but their struggle was far from over. In May of 1866, six Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee formed a white supremacist organization called the Ku Klux Klan.