America’s First Freedom Rider

In 1854, travel was dangerous, and for African Americans it was even more perilous. On Sunday morning, July 16, 1854, twenty-seven-year-old teacher Elizabeth Jennings and a friend boarded a horsecar on Chatham Street on their way to 2nd Avenue Church, where Jennings was organist and choir leader. When the conductor told her to wait for the next car because it had “her people” in it, she refused to leave and was knocked to the ground by the conductor and later pushed down the stairs by a policeman. She then filed a lawsuit, and Elizabeth Jennings vs. Third Avenue Railroad became a major news story for weeks. Represented by the young attorney Chester A. Arthur, she won on February 22, 1855, receiving $225 plus legal fees and securing for African Americans the right to equal transportation a century before Rosa Parks.

New York, New York · United States