Following the American Civil War, the 13th Amendment was ratified in 1865, abolishing slavery in the United States. During the post-Reconstruction era, leaders of southern states created a separate and second-class status for Black Americans, including separate schools for Whites and Blacks in Tennessee. In the 1940s, the Manhattan Project and later the Atomic Energy Commission operated the Oak Ridge Schools. The Atomic Energy Commission directed Oak Ridge Schools to desegregate, and on September 6, 1955, 85 Black American students peacefully enrolled in Oak Ridge High School and Robertsville Junior High School, creating the first desegregated public schools in the Southeast.