Immediately following the end of the Civil War, the United States entered a moment that felt hopeful.

For the first time, millions of newly freed African Americans were imagining a future built on opportunity, but hope alone wouldn't be enough.

The country needed a plan, something to help people rebuild their lives from the ground up.

That's where the Freedmen's Bureau came in.

Created by Congress in 1865, it was officially called the Department of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

And it would have a massive job.

The Freedmen's Bureau was responsible for managing abandoned land after the war, assisting displaced people from war-torn areas, and helping formerly enslaved people, including those in Georgia, adjust to life as free citizens.

So what did the Freedmen's Bureau promise to do for Black citizens?

What did it actually accomplish, and how did other groups try to destroy its work?

(lively music) Toward the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln knew the nation needed a plan to reconstruct or rebuild and help people recover from the war.

A large number of Americans, both Black and white, would need help after years of conflict.

Many had no homes, no steady work, and little money, but Black Southerners faced the biggest challenges of all.

People in situations like this, or those who were displaced by war, are called refugees.

So in 1865, to help these people, Congress, under President Lincoln's direction, established a new initiative within the War Department, which already handled military resources and relief efforts.

It would be officially named the Department of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.

Nicknamed the Freedmen's Bureau, the department was designed to operate during the remainder of the war and for one year after it ended.

For a while, the Freedmen's Bureau stepped into roles no other agency would, providing food, education, jobs, and protection from intimidation or assaults imposed by White supremacists.

The Freedmen's Bureau was also set up to run hospitals and refugee camps and supervise labor contracts between farm owners and Black workers.

And it would manage records, settle disputes, help formerly enslaved couples legally marry, and even provide transportation to reunite families.

To help all those in need, the Freedmen's Bureau set up offices across the South, in Washington, D.C., and in border states between the Union and the Confederacy.

The Bureau's impact was significant in its early days.

In Georgia, it created the state's first public school system for both Black and White students.

It opened more than 60 schools in its first year alone, but just as soon as progress began, challenges arose.

A month after the Freedmen's Bureau was created, the Civil War ended, and just one week after that, President Lincoln was assassinated.

(weapon firing) With the war now over, Reconstruction had officially begun, but the path forward was unclear.

Suddenly, reunification was in the hands of Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, a former slaveholder from Tennessee.

Although Johnson supported the Union, he was sympathetic to those who fought for the Confederacy.

The commitment to strengthen the country was now at risk, and the future of Black people's rights and the promises of Reconstruction felt uncertain.

Still, the Bureau pushed forward, promoting paid labor and written contracts, but without land, money, or political power, many Black workers were trapped in unfair agreements that offered few choices and even less pay.

White landowners gained access to cheap labor, which helped spread sharecropping across the region.

So instead of experiencing true freedom, formerly enslaved people fell into a system that looked similar to the old one.

The Bureau did deliver on some of its promises in Georgia, though.

The Freedmen's Bureau distributed more than 800,000 rations statewide.

While most went to formerly enslaved people, nearly one-fifth of the rations also supported poor White families.

In 1866, the Bureau's temporary assignment was coming to an end, but many felt the Bureau needed more than a single year to finish its work.

Although President Johnson vetoed the extension, Congress overrode his veto and passed the measure anyway.

Congress also expanded the Bureau's duties, including helping Black soldiers secure pay and pensions for their service in the Civil War.

But not everyone supported Reconstruction programs like the Freedmen's Bureau.

Many White Southerners saw Black people's progress as a threat to their power or social standing.

The Ku Klux Klan, or the KKK, which was founded in 1865 by Confederate veterans, formed in direct opposition to Reconstruction.

The Klan believed in White supremacy.

It targeted Black Americans, White Republicans, Catholics, Jews, and those who publicly supported equality.

The KKK often operated in secret, wearing disguises and using night raids to hide their identities.

With fear, intimidation, and violence, the Klan worked to stop Black progress and regain political control.

The Ku Klux Klan's violence wasn't random.

It was meant to send a message that challenging White supremacy would come with consequences.

In 1868 alone, the Freedmen's Bureau reported over 300 attacks on African Americans in Georgia, and during the Reconstruction era, at least 35 Black political officials were murdered by the Klan.

In addition to this violent opposition, the Freedmen's Bureau faced limited resources and an unclear future.

Its operations ceased in 1872.

Still, the Freedmen's Bureau made lasting contributions during Reconstruction.

In just a few years, Bureau-sponsored teachers taught 30,000 formerly enslaved people to read, and in Georgia, the legacy of some Freedmen schools still exists today in historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs, like Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University.

Despite its challenges, the Freedmen's Bureau helped formerly enslaved people find work, reunite their families, get food and shelter, and access education for the first time.

It supported schools, churches, and communities and laid the groundwork for civil rights, showing that freedom meant more than just the end of slavery.

It meant opportunity, education, and a chance to fully participate in society.

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