Transport and bus boycotts in the United States were protests against the racial segregation of transport services. These occurred before the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlawed such forms of discrimination.

Frederick Douglass and James N. Buffum

In 1841, abolitionist Frederick Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum entered a train car reserved for white passengers in Lynn, Massachusetts. When the conductor ordered them to leave the car, they refused, after which they were forcefully removed.Copied content from Frederick Douglass and James N. Buffum

Elizabeth Jennings Graham

On July 16, 1854, 24-year-old schoolteacher Elizabeth Jennings Graham was forcefully expelled by a train conductor after boarding a streetcar without a “Colored Persons Allowed” sign.Copied content from Elizabeth Jennings Graham

Charlotte L. Brown

In the mid-19th century, San Francisco's horse-drawn streetcar companies only accepted white passengers. On April 17, 1863, schoolteacher Charlotte L. Brown boarded an Omnibus Railroad Company streetcar, when she was approached by the conductor and asked to leave the car. After she objected, he forcefully removed her.Copied content from Charlotte L. Brown

Catharine "Kate" Brown

Catharine Brown boarded a train in Alexandria, Virginia, when traveling towards Washington, D.C., on February 8, 1868. She entered "what they call the 'white people's car.'" As she was boarding, a railroad policeman told her to move to a different car. He told her the car she had entered "was for ladies," and "no damned nigger was allowed to ride in that car; never was and never would be." She replied, "This car will do." Following this, the policeman and another employee grabbed Brown and began beating and kicking her. The men threw and dragged her on the boarding platform, threatening to arrest her. After a violent struggle that lasted six minutes, she asked, "What are you going to arrest me for? What have I done? Have I committed robbery? Have I murdered anybody?" Brown's injuries were so severe she was bedridden for several weeks and coughed blood.

Senators Charles Sumner and Justin Morrill called for a formal investigation, and Senator Charles Drake agreed. A resolution was passed on February 10, and the Senate committee heard testimony later that month. Brown sued the railway company for damages and was awarded $1,500 in damages in the district court. The railway company appealed, and the case eventually went before the US Supreme Court. On November 17, 1873, in an opinion delivered by Justice David Davis, the Court held that racial segregation on the railroad line was not allowed under its Congressional charter, which stated "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of race." Davis dismissed the company's "separate but equal" argument as "an ingenious attempt to evade a compliance with the obvious meaning of the requirement" of the 1863 charter, and decided in favor of Brown.Railroad Company v. Brown, 84 U.S. 445 (1873); US Supreme Court Case, Justia.com

The Court held that white and black passengers must be treated with equality in the use of the railroad's cars:

Copied content from Kate Brown (plaintiff)

Civil Rights Act of 1875

United States Senator Charles Sumner, with the assistance of John Mercer Langston, drafted in 1870 the bill that would become the Civil Rights Act of 1875. The bill was proposed by Senator Sumner and co-sponsored by Representative Benjamin F. Butler, both Republicans from Massachusetts, in the 41st Congress of the United States in 1870. Congress removed the coverage of public schools that Sumner had included. The act was passed by the 43rd Congress in February 1875 as a memorial to honor Sumner, who had recently died.Hoffer (2010), p. 121 It was signed into law by United States President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1875.Copied content from Civil Rights Act of 1875

Robert and Samuel Fox

Robert Fox, an African American activist, sparked a civil rights battle in Louisville, Kentucky, in October 1870 by entering a segregated streetcar. Fox got in a streetcar with his brother and business partner Samuel alongside their employee, Horace Pearce. They paid their fares and sat down in the white section of the car, in violation of local laws prohibiting black men from riding inside the trolley cars (black women were permitted to ride at the back of the car, but black men were usually only allowed to ride on the platform with the driver or not at all).Fleming, Maria, A Place at the Table: Struggles for Equality in America, Oxford University Press, USA, 2001, p. 36 When John Russell, a white passenger, complained, the driver asked the men to leave. The black passengers refused. Other drivers were called to the scene, and the men were beaten and thrown off the car. In response, a crowd of African Americans gathered outside and began to throw dirt clods and rocks at the streetcar, insisting that the men be allowed to ride. The Fox brothers and Pearce returned to the streetcar and again took seats in the 'white' section, this time holding rocks in their hands to protect themselves. The three men were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. At their trial, the defendants were unable to testify because the judge forbade blacks from testifying against whites. They were found guilty and fined $5 each ($99.48 in today's money (2021))Wright, George C., Life Behind a Veil: Blacks in Louisville, Kentucky, 1865--1930, LSU Press, September 1, 2004, p. 53Notable Kentucky African Americans, University of Kentucky Library Shortly after, Fox filed a charge of assault and battery against the streetcar company in federal court, claiming that separate seating policies based on race were unlawful and the driver's actions were therefore improper. A jury found the company rules to be invalid and awarded damages of $15 to Fox and his fellow riders.Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, John A. Hardin, The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia, University Press of Kentucky, July 16, 2015

The company defied the jury's finding and continued racially segregated seating. As a result, Louisville black leaders organized "ride-ins" all over the city. Streetcar after streetcar was boarded by African Americans who took seats in the white section. The drivers, in response, left the cars entirely. On several occasions, black passengers drove the cars themselves, to the cheers of black spectators. Gangs of white youths swarmed into the cars, throwing black riders off them. One incident involved an African American youth named Carey Duncan.Marion Brunson Lucas, University Press of Kentucky, June 1, 2003, A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760–1891, Volume 1, p. 297 At 7 P.M. on May 12, he boarded a streetcar, walked past the driver, and sat down among the white passengers. The driver, following the company directive, did not attempt to throw him off. Instead, he stopped the car, lit a cigar, and refused to proceed until the black youth left the white area. The governor, the Louisville chief of police, and other prominent citizens looked on from the sidewalks while a large crowd gathered around the streetcar and began to shout at the youth: "Put him out!" "Hit him!" "Kick him!" "Hang him!". Some of them climbed into the car, yelling insults. Carey Duncan quietly refused to move. The crowd dragged him from his seat, pulled his inert body off the car, and began to beat him. When Duncan started to defend himself, the city police intervened.Fleming, p. 41M. M. Noris, "An early instance of nonviolence: the Louisville demonstrations of 1870–1871", The Journal of Southern History, vol.32, issue 4, (November 1966), pp. 487-504.

Duncan was charged with disorderly conduct. His trial was held in Louisville city court and he was fined. The judge delivered a warning to Louisville blacks that further ride-ins would be punished. Louisville newspapers responded by blaming African Americans for the troubles and urging them to stop the ride-ins. "The assumption of their right to ride in the street cars, under the present circumstances, is injudicious, and we hope will not be persisted in," wrote an editor of the Daily Commercial. "To do so may lead to serious trouble."Norris, p. 501 Finally, Mayor John G. Baxter announced he would meet with interested parties on both sides to attempt a settlement.

At the meeting, the streetcar companies finally capitulated, realizing that the federal government was likely to step in and enforce integration if they didn't agree to it themselves.American Heritage, Part Five, originally published American Heritage Publishing Co, 1962 To "avoid serious collisions," the company announced it would allow all passengers to choose their own seating. Afterward, mixed seating became a common practice. Newspapers around the country commented on the demonstrations and their outcome.Norris, p. 502Copied content from Robert Fox (activist)

Ida B. Wells

On May 4, 1884, a train conductor with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway ordered Ida B. Wells to give up her seat in the first-class ladies' car and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded with other passengers. The previous year, the Supreme Court had ruled against the federal Civil Rights Act of 1875 (which had banned racial discrimination in public accommodations). This verdict supported railroad companies that chose to racially segregate their passengers. When Wells refused to give up her seat, the conductor and two men dragged her out of the car. Wells gained publicity in Memphis when she wrote a newspaper article for The Living Way, a Black church weekly, about her treatment on the train. In Memphis, she hired an African American attorney to sue the railroad. When her lawyer was bribed and paid off by the railroad company, she hired a White attorney. She won her case on December 24, 1884, when the local circuit court granted her a $500 award. The railroad company appealed to the Tennessee Supreme Court, which reversed the lower court's ruling in 1887. It concluded: "We think it is evident that the purpose of the defendant in error was to harass with a view to this suit, and that her persistence was not in good faith to obtain a comfortable seat for the short ride." Wells was ordered to pay court costs. Her reaction to the higher court's decision revealed her strong convictions on civil rights and religious faith, as she responded: "I felt so disappointed because I had hoped such great things from my suit for my people. ... O God, is there no ... justice in this land for us?"Copied content from Ida B. Wells

Plessy v. Ferguson

Homer Plessy On June 7, 1892, Plessy bought a first-class ticket at the Press Street Depot and boarded a "Whites Only" car of the East Louisiana Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana, bound for Covington, Louisiana. The action violated Louisiana's Separate Car Act of 1890, that law required black passengers to be seated in separate passenger cars on Louisiana railroads from white travelers.