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  • Bishop Campbell's Indignity

    The expulsion of an African American preacher from a Georgia rail car draws the ire of Philadelphia citizens.

  • | Newspaper

    Georgia Letter

    The plight of middle- and upper-class African Americans on Georgia railways and in public accommodations is briefly addressed in this report from Savannah, Georgia.

  • | Book

    Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself

    In this excerpt, Douglass relates the details of his dangerous escape from slavery. Traveling the railroad with borrowed papers, he flees to New York.

  • | Newspaper

    OUTRAGE IN ALABAMA

    The ejection of a party of Alabama African American men and women from a first class car on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad is recounted in this letter from William Jenkins of Tuskeegee, Alabama.

  • | Newspaper

    Untitled [Grand Jury of the United States District Court Harrisonburg, Va., has found a bill of indictment]

    The United States District Court at Harrisionburg, Virginia, hands down an indictment against the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad for the ejection of Annie Smith.

  • | Newspaper

    DISCRIMINATION ON ACCOUNT OF COLOR ON RAILROADS

    The New York Times reported on its front page the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Catharine Brown's case. The case aroused Republicans to reconsider the intent and purpose of the Congress in the midst of the Civil War because it turned on the railroad's Congressional charter from 1863 which clearly barred any discrimination on the basis of race or color. The railroad's main argument before the Supreme Court rested first on the idea that separate cars were customary, locally sanctioned, and equally accommodated, and second on the specious reasoning that because they carried colored passengers they had not violated the Congressional charter--colored persons were carried, just in a different car. The spirit of the Congress in 1863, the Court decided, suggested otherwise. The decision, however significant and newsworthy, was sorely limited in its application. Only a handful of railroads in the District of Columbia possessed such language in their originating charters.

  • | Legal decision

    Railroad Company v. Brown, 84 U.S. 17 Wall. 445 445 (1873)

    In 1868, Catherine Brown, an African American woman, was ejected from the "ladies car" on the Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown Railroad Company when traveling from Alexandria, Virginia, to the District of Columbia. Brown sued the rail company and the case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court - the first case addressing race and public transportation to appear before the Court. Although the legal status of the railroad under Congressional rulings that had applied to earlier iterations of the company became a basis for appeal, the rights of African Americans became the most notable outcome of the Supreme Court's decision for Brown in 1873.

  • | Legal decision

    Draft of Catharine Brown, Evidence Given

    Catharine Brown's case--Case No. 4582--was scheduled to go to trial in October 1868 in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, but was delayed because of various procedural motions by the railroad's attorneys. When these motions were denied, the case was tried over three days in March 1870. The all white jury rendered a verdict of guilty against the railroad company and awarded Brown $1,500 in damages. Then, the defendant railroad attorney's sought an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is their statement of argument, denying that the railroad used violence or made derogatory remarks. Furthermore, in denying Brown's claims, the railroad argued that there were distinctions between through and local passenger types of service, even on the Baltimore and Ohio, and that separate colored cars on local lines were run at the request of black passengers.

  • | Legal decision

    Seth E. Beedy 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. Seth Beedy was traveling with Benjamin Hinds, who knew and recognized "Kate" Brown. Beedy testified, "she was ejected by violence and that alone."

  • | 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.

  • | Letter

    Letter from Samuel B. Reed to Wife and Family, December 16, 1868

    In this letter from December 16, 1868, Samuel Reed writes to his wife and family describing the progress on grading and decribes the recent weather, which has been clear. Reed again complains about Durant's interference, noting that "this work would all have been finished long ago if my arrangements had not been interfered with."

  • | Newspaper

    The Washington and Alexandria Railroad Car

    The railroad's segregation of Catharine Brown in February 1868 and her subsequent lawsuit against the company came to the immediate attention of Senator Charles Sumner (Massachusetts) and Senator Waitman Willey (West Virginia), both of whom sat on the Senate's District of Columbia Committee. At their urging, the Senate Committee launched an investigation into the affair, deposed dozens of witnesses, and issued a stinging report against the railroad company. Many of these same witnesses testified later in Brown's civil suit against the railroad company.

  • | Government document

    Senate Report on Catharine Brown

    The U.S. Senate Committee on the District of Columbia hears testimony about the forcible ejection of Catherine Brown from the Alexandria and Washington Railroad coach. Multiple witnesses are called and the circumstances of her removal are described.

  • 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.

  • | Legal decision

    Catharine Brown, Plaintiff's Prayers

    A brief description of the judgement Catherine Brown hoped for as the jury decided her case.

  • | Document

    Travel Order Freedmen's Bureau

    A Freedmen's Bureau travel voucher for 107 adults and 16 children (under 12) - "destitute freedpeople" traveling from Charlotte, North Carolina to Plaquemines, Louisiana. Generally, when large numbers of freedpeople travelled, it was under the terms of a labor contract.

  • | Annual report

    Report on the Condition and Prospects of the Southern Railroad of Mississippi

    This report details the financial and material state of the Southern Railroad Company in 1867.

  • | Document

    Travel Accounting, Freedmen's Bureau

    An accounting of Freedmen's Bureau-sponsored travel on the Virginia Central Railroad during the first half of 1867. Many emancipated African Americans traveled American railroads to old and new homes in the wake of the Civil War - the Freemen's Burueau paid for much of the travel.

  • | Document

    Order for travel, Freedmen's Bureau

    A type of travel document issued for travel under the auspices of the Freemen's Bureau. This August 22, 1866, voucher authorizes travel from Washington, D. C. to Southwick, Massachusetts on the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. Many emancipated African Americans traveled American railroads to old and new homes in the wake of the Civil War - the Freemen's Burueau paid for much of the travel.

  • | 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.