Elizabeth Jennings Graham
Encyclopedia
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. She figured in an important early civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
case, when she insisted on her right to ride on a streetcar in 1854.
Early life
Graham was the daughter of Thomas Jennings, a successful tailor, and an important man in New York's black community. By 1854, she had become a schoolteacher and church organist. She taught at the city's African Free Schools, and later in the public schools.Jennings v. Third Ave. Railroad
In the 1850s the horse-drawn streetcar on rails was becoming more common as a mode of transportation, competing with the horse-drawn omnibusOmnibus
Omnibus may refer to:Law* Omnibus bill, a single legislative document containing many laws or amendments* Omnibus spending bill, a single legislative document that sets the budget of many government departments* Omnibus clause* Omnibus hearing...
in the city.(Elevated heavy rail, the next new mode in the city, did not go into service until 1869.) Like the omnibus lines, the streetcar lines were owned by private companies and the owners or drivers could refuse to serve any passengers they wished to. Many refused to allow black passengers.
On Sunday, 16 July 1854, Jennings set off for the First Colored Congregational Church, where she was organist. As she was running late, she boarded a streetcar of the Third Avenue Railroad Company
Third Avenue Railway
The Third Avenue Railway System was a street railroad system in New York City in the 19th and early 20th century.-History:The principal company was the Third Avenue Railroad Company from 1853 to 1910, when it was succeeded in reorganization by the Third Avenue Railway Company...
at the corner of Pearl and Chatham streets. 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.
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley
Horace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
's New York Tribune
New York Tribune
The New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
commented on the incident in February 1855:
There was an organized movement among black New Yorkers to end this discrimination, led by notables such as Jennings's father, Thomas, Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, and Rev. Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet
Henry Highland Garnet was an African American abolitionist and orator. An advocate of militant abolitionism, Garnet was a prominent member of the abolition movement that led against moral suasion toward more political action. Renowned for his skills as a public speaker, he urged blacks to take...
. Her story was publicized by Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...
, and received national attention.
Jennings filed a lawsuit against the driver, the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railroad Company in Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, where Third Avenue 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
Chester A. Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur was the 21st President of the United States . Becoming President after the assassination of President James A. Garfield, Arthur struggled to overcome suspicions of his beginnings as a politician from the New York City Republican machine, succeeding at that task by embracing...
, future President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
.
In 1855, she received a verdict in her favor. In his charge to the jury, Brooklyn Circuit Court
Circuit court
Circuit court is the name of court systems in several common law jurisdictions.-History:King Henry II instituted the custom of having judges ride around the countryside each year to hear appeals, rather than forcing everyone to bring their appeals to London...
Judge William Rockwell declared:
The jury found for Jennings, and awarded damages in the amount of $225.00 (comparable to $5,000 to $10,000 in 2008 dollars), and $22.50 in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company ordered its cars desegregated.
The Third Avenue Railroad, one of the first four street railway companies to be franchised in the city, had been in operation only one year at the time of the Jennings incident. The Jennings case was instrumental in establishing policy for a new service industry. A month after the verdict, a black man was refused admission to a car of the Eighth Avenue Railroad, another of the first four companies. He won a similar judgment confirming that in New York passengers could not be refused a ride based on race. New York's public transit was fully desegregated by 1861.
Later life
Jennings married Charles Graham, and had a one-year-old son, Thomas. He was a sickly child and died of convulsions during the New York Draft RiotsNew York Draft Riots
The New York City draft riots were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War itself...
of July 1863. With the assistance of a white undertaker, the Grahams slipped through mob-infested streets and buried their child in Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. The funeral service was read by Rev. Morgan Dix of the Trinity Church
Trinity Church, New York
Trinity Church at 79 Broadway, Lower Manhattan, is a historic, active parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of New York...
on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
.
Little more is known about her. In later years, Graham lived at 247 West 41st Street, where she operated the city's first kindergarten for black children. She died in 1901.
See also
- John Mitchell, Jr. (editor)John Mitchell, Jr. (editor)John Mitchell, Jr. was an African American businessman, politician, and newspaper editor.Mitchell was a civic leader and civil rights activist in Richmond, Virginia’s Jackson Ward community, a neighborhood of free African Americans and freed slaves which became known as the “Black Wall Street of...
- Irene MorganIrene MorganIrene Morgan , later known as Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, was an important predecessor to Rosa Parks in the successful fight to overturn segregation laws in the United States...
- Rosa ParksRosa ParksRosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
- Frederick DouglassFrederick DouglassFrederick Douglass was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing...