This federal act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race. Black people were granted equal access to public resources.

This amendment granted Black people the right to vote in the United States. With its passing, seven Black men were elected to the Congress and the Senate. These men were from the states of South Carolina (Rep. Robert C. de Large, Senator Joseph H. Rainey, and Senator R. Brown Elliott), Mississippi (Senator H.R. Revels), Georgia (Rep. Jefferson H. Long), Alabama (Senator Benjamin S. Turner), and Florida. Josiah T. Walls was the first Black senator of Florida.

According to Florida Atlantic University, Florida enacted 19 segregation laws between the years of 1865 and 1967. Florida was also known for enforcing especially harsh penalties to people who broke these Jim Crow laws.

The Amnesty and Reconstruction Proclamation is issued by President Lincoln. In order to rebuild the United States, Lincoln offered to forgive Confederates who swore allegiance to the Union and accepted emancipation. In return, any of their property that was taken by Union soldiers during the war would be returned (except for previously enslaved people).

Union forces take St. Augustine and many of Florida's coastal cities and free many Black people who were enslaved there. Federal troops reclaim the Saint Francis Barracks and Fort Marion and Confederate activity is criminalized. Having family members who were Confederate soldiers, many of the White ladies in St. Augustine were vehemently against the Union and openly protested and mocked the federal soldiers.

Troops who were stationed in Fort Marion under the Confederacy are ordered to withdraw from St. Augustine. For a few days, the city was empty of military forces.