Charles Lenox Remond Addresses Massachusetts Legislature

Charles Lenox Remond, a Black abolitionist from Salem, Massachusetts, became the first Black person to address a United States legislative body when he testified before the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1842, arguing against segregated railcar laws. Remond had spent two years in Britain as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society, where he experienced non-segregated public transportation, and used that contrast to powerfully condemn American racial hypocrisy. His testimony was a landmark in the struggle for civil rights and equal public accommodations.