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  • | Newspaper

    Rev. Mr. Heard's Railroad Case

    The case of Rev. William Heard versus the Georgia Railroad Company is heard before the Interstate Commerce Commission.

  • | Newspaper

    Couldn't Ride on the Sleeper

    The ejection of Reverend H. F. Lee from a Georgia railcar is reported.

  • | Newspaper

    FACTS FROM GEORGIA

    A correspondent of the New York Age reports on an Atlanta Evening Journal article recounting the expulsion of Reverend T. H. Lee from a Georgia Railroad Company coach.

  • | Law

    The Louisiana Railway Accommodations Act

    The Louisiana Railway Accommodations Act mandates "equal but separate" rail travel in the state.

  • | Newspaper

    Untitled [Through the action of the separate coach law]

    A reponse from the Southern Pacific following an Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that African Americans making trips crossing state lines could not be ejected from first-class cars.

  • | Book

    A Voice From the South: By A Woman of the South

    Anna J. Cooper, the first African American woman to earn a PhD, worked as a speaker, educator, and reformer. In this excerpt from Voice From the South Cooper addresses the contrast between the expectations of any middle-class, well-dressed woman traveling and the realities of the experience for African American women. Read with Richard Wells' Manners, Culture and Dress of the Best American Society, also featured on this site.

  • | Journal

    Our Civil Rights

    As African American civil rights are threatened with increasing segregation, a writer for a noted African American publication analyzes the situation.

  • | Book

    The Reason Why the Colored American is not in the World's Columbian Exposition

    Ida B. Wells, Frederick Douglass, Irvine Garland Penn, Ferdinand L. Barnett, and Frederick Loudin published The Reason Why in response to the exclusion of Afircan Americans and their contributions to American life from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The excerpt included here is part of Wells' contribution and includes the Tennessee separate coach law.

  • | Newspaper

    Rights of Negroes

    The decision for Maime Caldwell in her case against the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad Company for discrimination is briefly recounted, noting the final award of $800.

  • | Newspaper

    Fight on Class Law

    The Anti-Separate Coach Committee of Kentucky begins to lobby against the Jim Crow laws recently passed by the state legislature.

  • | Legal decision

    Excerpts from Plessy v. Ferguson decision

    These excerpts from the Supreme Court's Plessy v Ferguson decision outline primary points of the seven-man decision that asserted the constitutionality of "separate but equal" facilities.

  • | Legal decision

    Excerpts from Plessy v. Ferguson dissent

    These excerpts from Justice John Harlan's dissent from the Supreme Court's Plessy v Ferguson decision include scathing counter-arguments to the majority decision that asserted the legality of "separate but equal" facilities.

  • | Newspaper

    Race Problem on Railroads

    North Carolina plans for Jim Crow cars draw attention.

  • | Law

    An Act to Require Railroad Companies to Provide Separate Cars for White and Colored Passengers

    Virginia's separate coach law, approved in January of 1900 and enacted July 1900.

  • | Newspaper

    "Jim Crow" Law To Be Tested

    The restrictions of Jim Crow laws are tested by Virginia's Pamunkey Indians.

  • | Pamphlet

    A Republican Text-Book for Colored Voters

    Meant as a primer for African American voters, this short volume includes a brief interview with William Jennings Bryan, followed by a comment on Jim Crow cars.

  • | Book

    The Marrow of Tradition

    In this excerpt from Charles Chesnutt's novel, the African American doctor protagonist faces the reality of segregation on Southern railroads.

  • | Photograph

    A Manicure on the "Modern Train"

    This image from The Modern Railroad (1911) captures a white, female passenger receiving a manicure from an African-American woman while aboard the railroad.