Elizabeth Jennings Graham Wins Desegregation of New York Streetcars

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