Elizabeth Jennings Graham

An undated photo, the only picture we have of her.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham (1827-1901), one of the 13 Black schoolteachers of New York City in 1855, was the Rosa Parks of New York, back in its own Jim Crow days. When she won Jennings v Third Avenue Railroad on February 22nd 1855, it was not the end of racial segregation of public transport in New York, but it was the beginning of the end: the Third Avenue line desegregated but other companies fought on. Frederick Douglass called her “courageous” and “beyond all praise”. She also co-founded the first free kindergarten for Black children in New York City. That was in 1895.

On Sunday July 16th 1854, Jennings (not yet married to Mr Graham) was late for church and caught the Third Avenue streetcar (tram, trolley) at Pearl and Chatham (now Park Row). She never had any trouble before but today she did: the conductor told her to wait for the Jim Crow car that was about a block away.

Pearl and Chatham in New York City in 1861 – the same corner seven years later. Notice the streetcar being pulled by horses.

Jim Crow cars had a sign that said “COLORED PEOPLE ALLOWED IN THE CAR”. They often showed up late or not at all. White streetcars were more dependable, but often refused to take Black passengers or made them stand on the outside instead of sit inside. That was against state law on public transport:

“Colored persons, if sober, well-behaved, and free from disease, [have] the same rights as others.”

When the Jim Crow car came, it had no room for her.

The conductor said, “Well, you may go in, but remember, if the passengers raise any objections, you shall go out.”

She said she was a respectable person, born and raised in New-York, did not know where he was born (he probably had an Irish accent), that she had never been insulted before while going to church, and that he was a “good for nothing impudent fellow” for insulting decent persons while on their way to church.

He said he was from Ireland. She said it made no difference so long as he did not “insult genteel persons.” She was Black middle class, he was White working class.

He lost it. He and the driver dragged her off the streetcar, to which she clung for dear life while her friend, Sarah Adams, was screaming, “You’ll kill her, don’t kill her!” Once they threw her off they drove her away “like a dog”.

Then she got back on!

When they got to Walker Street (now Canal Street), they saw a policeman and had him escort her off. She limped home.

Her father, Thomas Jennings, a tailor and a Black activist, told her write down everything she could remember and had her checked out by a doctor. She was bruised and banged up.

Three days later Horace Greeley printed her acount in his New-York Daily Tribune.

Her father sued the Third Avenue line. He hired a 24-year-old lawyer who had just six weeks’ experience: Chester Arthur. He won the case. He later became the US president, from 1881 to 1885. The main reason her story is still remembered.

– Abagond, 2021.

Source: mainly “Streetcar to Justice” (2018) by Amy Hill Hearth.

See also:

• Black New York: a brief history
• African Free School – where she went to school
• Rosa Parks
• Jim Crow
• Jump Jim Crow – the song that started the slur and the blackface minstrel show craze
• Freedom Riders
  • Mother’s Day in Anniston
• Irish Americans
• Black Americans

565