July 16, 1854 – Elizabeth Jennings Graham Challenged Racist Streetcar Policies in New York City

Elizabeth Jennings Graham was an African-American who was born free in 1827 in New York. Her father, also a free man, was a successful tailor and an influential member of New York’s black community. He has been identified as the earliest known Black person to hold a patent in the United States in his or her own name; in 1821, he was awarded a patent from the U.S. government for developing dry scouring, a new method to dry clean clothing. With the proceeds he received from his patented dry-cleaning process, Thomas Jennings bought his family’s freedom; his wife had been a slave and therefore their children were also considered to be slaves.

Elizabeth’s mother also become well-known in the Black community. She was a member of the Ladies Literary Society of New York, an organization founded by elite Black women to promote self-improvement.

Elizabeth became a schoolteacher for free Black and the organist at her church. By the 1850s, streetcars were common in New York City, but they were owned by private companies, which regularly barred access to their service on the basis of race.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham, circa 1895

On a Sunday on this day in history, Elizabeth was running late to the church, and boarded a streetcar of the Third Avenue Railroad Company. The conductor ordered her to get off. When she refused, the conductor tried to remove her by force. Eventually, with the aid of a police officer, Jennings was ejected from the streetcar. As the “New York Tribune” reported later: “The conductor got her down on the platform, jammed her bonnet, soiled her dress and injured her person.”

The incident resulted in an organized movement, led by Elizabeth’s father among others, to end racial discrimination on streetcars. Frederick Douglass publicized the case in his newspaper, garnering it national attention. Elizabeth’s father also filed a lawsuit on behalf of his daughter against the driver, the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railroad Company in Brooklyn, where the Third Avenue company was headquartered. She was represented by the law firm of Culver, Parker, and Arthur. Her case was handled by the firm’s 24-year-old junior partner Chester A. Arthur, future president of the United States.

Chester A. Arthur, c. 1859

In 1855, the Brooklyn Circuit Court ruled in her favor. In his charge to the jury, Judge William Rockwell declared: “Colored persons if sober, well-behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by any rules of the company, nor by force or violence.”

The jury awarded Jennings damages in the amount of $250 (equivalent to $8,261 in 2022) as well as $22.50 in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company ordered its cars desegregated.

Not all streetcar lines desegregated, however, and the fight by Black activists for equal access continued. A decade later in 1865, New York’s public transit services were finally fully desegregated. The last case was a challenge by a black woman named Ellen Anderson, a widow of a fallen United States Colored Troops soldier, a fact that won public support for her.