Robert Fox (c. 1846–1933) was an African-American activist who sparked a civil rights battle in Louisville, Kentucky in October 1870 by entering a segregated streetcar.
In response, an angry crowd of African Americans that had gathered outside began to throw dirt clods and rocks at the streetcar, insisting that the men be allowed to ride.
They were found guilty and fined $5 each ($99.48 in 2021 money)[4][5] Shortly after, Fox filed a charge of assault and battery against the streetcar company in federal court, claiming that separate seating policies based on race were unlawful and the driver's actions were therefore improper.
The driver, following the company directive, did not attempt to throw him off, but instead, stopped the car, lit a cigar and refused to proceed until the black youth left the white area."
The governor, the Louisville chief of police and other prominent citizens looked on from the sidewalks, while a large crowd gathered around the streetcar and began to shout at the youth: "Put him out!"
"The assumption of their right to ride in the street cars, under the present circumstances, is injudicious, and we hope will not be persisted in," wrote an editor of the Daily Commercial.
At the meeting, the streetcar companies finally capitulated, realizing that the federal government was likely to step in and enforce integration if they didn't agree to it themselves.
[11][12] In the 20th and 21st centuries, the Louisville ride-ins sparked by Robert Fox and his companions taking a seat in the whites-only section have been viewed by historians as an early example of successful massive but non-violent African-American resistance to racial segregation laws, a method that would be used again in the Montgomery bus boycott and in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.