Elizabeth Jennings Graham – Justice on the Streetcar

Born: March 1827, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Died: June 5, 1901, New York, New York, U.S.A.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham was a fearless educator whose refusal to accept discrimination sparked one of the first victories against segregation in New York City.

In 1854, seven years before the American Civil War, a young African American schoolteacher named Elizabeth Jennings boarded a streetcar in downtown Manhattan. She was headed to play the organ at the First Colored American Congregational Church, where she was an organist. At the time, New York City’s streetcars were run by private companies, many of which forced Black passengers to ride only in cars marked with signs that read: Negro Persons Allowed in This Car. Elizabeth and her friend, Sarah Adams, did not want to wait for such a car, so they stepped onto a whites-only streetcar. What happened next would change the fight for equality in New York and set an early example for the civil rights movement.

Elizabeth Jennings Graham was born free in March 1827. Her mother, also named Elizabeth, had been born enslaved but gained freedom before marrying Thomas Jennings, a skilled tailor and businessman. Thomas Jennings became the first known Black person to receive a patent in the United States, for a dry-cleaning process he invented. Both of Elizabeth’s parents were well respected in their community. Her mother was active in the Ladies Literary Society of New York, an organization that encouraged Black women to read, write, and pursue self-improvement. Her father was deeply involved in abolitionist work, using his professional connections to push for the end of slavery.

Elizabeth grew up in this environment of education and activism. At the age of ten, she gave a speech called On the Improvement of the Mind before the Ladies Literary Society. By her twenties, she became a teacher at the African Free School, which served both free and enslaved Black children in the city. Teaching was her passion, but she soon found herself pulled into the larger struggle for racial justice.

On July 16, 1854, Elizabeth Jennings and Sarah Adams boarded a Third Avenue Railroad Company streetcar. The conductor immediately told them to get off. Elizabeth refused, saying that it was insulting for him to reject churchgoing passengers simply because of their race. Sarah was forced off the car, but Elizabeth resisted fiercely. She clung to the window frame and to the conductor’s coat during the struggle.

The conductor finally found a police officer, who boarded the car and physically threw Elizabeth off into the street. What neither man realized was that their actions would cause an uproar.

Elizabeth told her family and friends what had happened, and they encouraged her to write down every detail. Her account quickly spread. It was published in The New York Daily Tribune, edited by abolitionist Horace Greeley, and in Frederick Douglass’s newspaper. The story shocked many readers and drew attention far beyond New York City. Her father, Thomas Jennings, decided to sue the Third Avenue Railroad Company on his daughter’s behalf.

The case, Jennings v. Third Avenue Railroad, was argued in the Brooklyn Circuit Court. Elizabeth’s lawyer was Chester A. Arthur, a young attorney who later became the 21st president of the United States. Although Arthur was only in his twenties and still starting his career, he won the case. The judge ruled that African Americans “if sober, well-behaved, and free from disease” had the same rights as any other passengers. The ruling declared that Black riders could not be excluded from public streetcars by force.

Elizabeth was awarded $250 in damages. More importantly, the decision pressured the Third Avenue Railroad Company to desegregate its cars the very next day. While other lines took longer, by 1859, five years later, all of New York City’s streetcars were legally integrated. This was a small but important victory, paving the way for later civil rights actions, including Rosa Parks’ famous stand in Montgomery more than a century later.

Little is known about Elizabeth’s later life. She married Charles Graham in 1860, and the couple had a son who sadly died in infancy. During the Civil War, she briefly moved to New Jersey to avoid racial persecution, but she returned to New York after the war. There, she founded the city’s first kindergarten for Black children, teaching them in her own home. Elizabeth Jennings Graham passed away on June 5, 1901. She was buried in Brooklyn, near her husband, her son, and thousands of Union soldiers.

Elizabeth Jennings’s bravery as a young woman on that hot July day helped bring down one of New York City’s barriers of segregation. Though her name is less well-known than Rosa Parks, her refusal to give up her seat in 1854 made her a pioneer in the long fight for justice and equality.

References:
“Black History Month Spotlight: Elizabeth Jennings Graham: Education & Professional Development Nonprofit: Educators of America.” Education & Professional Development Nonprofit | Educators of America |, 5 Feb. 2021, www.educatorsusa.org/black-history-month-spotlight-elizabeth-jennings-graham.
“Elizabeth Jennings Graham.” New York Transit Museum, 27 Jan. 2025, www.nytransitmuseum.org/elizabethjenningsgraham.
“‘I Did Not Get off the Car.’” Miller Center, 20 Jan. 2024, millercenter.org/the-presidency/educational-resources/i-did-not-get-car.

Keywords:
Civil Rights, Justice, Courage, Perseverance, Freedom, Responsibility, Challenge Injustices, Stand Up for Your Beliefs

Explore ARTEFFECT projects about this Unsung Hero:
Elizabeth Jennings Graham Artworks