Elizabeth Jennings Graham Wins Desegregation of New York Streetcars

Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a Black schoolteacher and church organist, was forcibly removed from a New York streetcar in 1854. Her suit, with a young Chester A. Arthur as her attorney, resulted in an 1855 jury verdict requiring the Third Avenue Railway Company to desegregate. The ruling helped lead to full desegregation of New York City transit in 1873 and prefigured Rosa Parks' resistance by a century.