In 1841, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum entered a train car reserved for white passengers in Lynn, Massachusetts.
[1][2] On July 16, 1854, 24-year-old schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings Graham was forcefully expelled by a train conductor after boarding a streetcar without a “Colored Persons Allowed” sign.
On April 17, 1863, schoolteacher Charlotte L. Brown boarded an Omnibus Railroad Company streetcar, when she was approached by the conductor and asked to leave the car.
On November 17, 1873, in an opinion delivered by Justice David Davis, the Court held that racial segregation on the railroad line was not allowed under its Congressional charter, which stated "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of race."
Davis dismissed the company's "separate but equal" argument as "an ingenious attempt to evade a compliance with the obvious meaning of the requirement" of the 1863 charter, and decided in favor of Brown.
It told this company in substance that it could extend its road within the District as desired, but that this discrimination must cease and the colored and white race, in the use of the cars, be placed on an equality.
[7][8] United States Senator Charles Sumner, with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, drafted in 1870 the bill that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1875.
The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st Congress of the United States in 1870.
[10][11] Robert Fox, an African American activist, sparked a civil rights battle in Louisville, Kentucky, in October 1870 by entering a segregated streetcar.
In response, a crowd of African Americans gathered outside and 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 today's money (2021))[14][15] 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 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.
[26] The previous year, the Supreme Court had ruled against the federal Civil Rights Act of 1875 (which had banned racial discrimination in public accommodations).
It concluded: "We think it is evident that the purpose of the defendant in error was to harass with a view to this suit, and that her persistence was not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat for the short ride.
Her reaction to the higher court's decision revealed her strong convictions on civil rights and religious faith, as she responded: "I felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things from my suit for my people.
Segregation impacted the lives of millions of African Americans as they were barred from restaurants, hospitals, hotels, housing, schools, job prospects, and interpersonal relationships because of their skin color.
Harlan, now known as the "Great Dissenter", wrote, "the Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens", and so the law's distinguishing of passengers' races should have been found unconstitutional.
In the early 1950s, they made up about 80% of the ridership of the city buses and were estimated to account for slightly more than 10,000 passengers based on the $1,600 in daily revenue lost to the boycott and the fare that had recently increased to 15 cents.
That day was when the federal ruling Browder v. Gayle took effect, which led to a United States Supreme Court decision that declared the Alabama and Montgomery laws that segregated buses were unconstitutional.
On May 26, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, two Florida A&M University students, were arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department for "placing themselves in a position to incite a riot".
[39]: 36 On January 7, 1957, the City Commission repealed the bus-franchise segregation clause because of the United States Supreme Court ruling Browder v. Gayle (1956).
241, enacted July 2, 1964) outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, and later sexual orientation and gender identity.
Title III Prohibited state and municipal governments from denying access to public facilities on grounds of race, color, religion, or national origin.