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September 11, 1865 | Annual report
Circular to the Bondholders and Creditors of the Southern Railroad Company, of the State of Mississippi
This September 11, 1865 circular reports on the condition and financial status of the Southern Railroad Company after the Civil War.
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December 7, 1867 | Illustration
Central Pacific Railroad—Chinese Laborers at Work
This image from the December 7, 1867 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Chinese laborers working on the Central Pacific Railroad.
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March 4, 1868 | Legal decision
Catharine Brown, Plaintiff's Prayers
A brief description of the judgement Catherine Brown hoped for as the jury decided her case.
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March 4, 1868
Catharine Brown, Complaint
Catharine Brown filed suit against the Washington, Alexandria and Georgetown Railroad in March 1868, arguing that a month earlier she was forcibly and violently ejected from the ladies car in Alexandria, Virginia, because of her color. She sought damages of $20,000 to pay for her medical care and to compensate for the injustice of segregation and discrimination. Brown's original petition focused on the railroad's duty as a common carrier and on Brown's first-class ticket which permitted her to ride in the ladies car.
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March 31, 1883
Bishop Campbell's Indignity
The expulsion of an African American preacher from a Georgia rail car draws the ire of Philadelphia citizens.
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December 31, 1869 | Legal decision
Benjamin H. Hinds Deposition
Catharine Brown's attorneys deposed two white men who were on the train with Brown and witnessed her expulsion from the cars in Alexandria. Both lived in Maine and were deposed in December 1869. Benjamin Hinds' testimony was particularly significant because he described in detail the violence he witnessed, and because he knew Brown "since January 1866," perhaps from her work in the U.S. Capitol, and tried to intervene on her behalf.
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1900 | 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.
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1892 | 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.
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1901 | 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.
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August 4, 1900 | Newspaper
"Jim Crow" Law To Be Tested
The restrictions of Jim Crow laws are tested by Virginia's Pamunkey Indians.
