Search Documents

30 Documents foundEdit Search

Sort by: Title, Date, Type

  • | 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.

  • | Law

    The Louisiana Railway Accommodations Act

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

  • | 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 Marrow of Tradition

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

  • | 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.

  • | Book

    The Congressional Globe [excerpts]

    In these excerpts from a Senate debate over regulations for a District of Columbia street railroad, many typical arguments for and against public segregation are aired in language that also reveals attitudes towards race and equality as the Civil War continued.

  • | Book

    Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

    In these excerpts from her memoir, Harriet Jacobs writes of the segregation and prejudice she faced in the North almost immediately after escaping from slavery.

  • | Book

    My Bondage and My Freedom

    In this excerpt from My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass recounts the segregation of Northern railcars and the attitudes of Northern passengers.

  • Bishop Campbell's Indignity

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

  • Letter from Sally A. Kendrick to Jennie Reed, September 12, 1863

    In this letter from September 12, 1863, Sally A. Kendrick writes to her friend Jennie Reed, wife of Samuel Reed, discussing the recent death of her brother and the war. She speculates that the war will not end until slavery is abolished, but notes that she did not think so until after the fall of Fort Sumter. She states that she is no abolitionist, does not believe in "the equality of the races," and does not "want them here among us," but does "want to see them free and colonized some where." She shares several ideas regarding what should be done with the slaves after they are freed.