Before Rosa Parks
1/ When researching scientists, I once came upon Thomas L. Jennings. Fascinating man, 1st African American to get a patent, basically invented dry cleaning, but it was his daughter Elizabeth Jennings Graham that brought the most change. Here is her story
1/ When researching scientists, I once came upon Thomas L. Jennings. Fascinating man, 1st African American to get a patent, basically invented dry cleaning, but it was his daughter Elizabeth Jennings Graham that brought the most change. Here is her story
2/ 1854, Elizabeth Jennings Graham was running late to church, where she was the organist. she boarded a streetcar, and the conductor ordered her to get off. She refused, and first the conductor tried but called on a police officer to eject from the streetcar.
3/ The story, publicized by Frederick Douglass, gained national exposure. With her father, and a Rev. James Pennington, they hired a 24 year old lawyer to take her case. That young lawyer later became the 21st President of the United States, Chester A Arthur.
4/ Elizabeth Jennings Graham filed her lawsuit against the driver, the conductor, and the railroad company. She won her case. She was given $250 in damages, but...This was just one transit company, and after the suit, order all their cars to be desegregated.
5/ A month after Graham won the case(1855) Rev. Pennington was removed in a similar fashion. Represented by the Legal Rights Foundation, a legal group founded by Thomas L. Jennings, his case was won as well, challenged by the State Supreme Court, and upheld.
6/ It took 10 years after the Elizabeth Jennings Graham's case to see all of New York's public transportation desegregated, didn't mean they weren't separated in the same cars though.
7/ After making her mark with that piece of history, Elizabeth Jennings Graham did another first. She opened the first school for African American kids in New York. She operated it from her home until she died in 1901.
