Streetcar to justice : how Elizabeth Jennings won the right to ride in New York

Starred reviews hail Streetcar to Justice as "a book that belongs in any civil rights library collection" (Publishers Weekly) and "completely fascinating and unique" (Kirkus). An ALA Notable Book and winner of a Septima Clark Book Award from the National Council for the Social Studies.

Bestselling author and journalist Amy Hill Hearth uncovers the story of a little-known figure in U.S. history in this fascinating biography.

In 1854, a young African American woman named Elizabeth Jennings won a major victory against a New York City streetcar company, a first step in the process of desegregating public transportation in Manhattan.

This illuminating and important piece of the history of the fight for equal rights, illustrated with photographs and archival material from the period, will engage fans of Phillip Hoose's Claudette Colvin and Steve Sheinkin's Most Dangerous.

One hundred years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Elizabeth Jennings's refusal to leave a segregated streetcar in the Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan set into motion a major court case in New York City.

On her way to church one day in July 1854, Elizabeth Jennings was refused a seat on a streetcar. When she took her seat anyway, she was bodily removed by the conductor and a nearby police officer and returned home bruised and injured. With the support of her family, the African American abolitionist community of New York, and Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Jennings took her case to court. Represented by a young lawyer named Chester A. Arthur (a future president of the United States) she was victorious, marking a major victory in the fight to desegregate New York City's public transportation.

Amy Hill Hearth, bestselling author of Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years, illuminates a lesser-known benchmark in the struggle for equality in the United States, while painting a vivid picture of the diverse Five Points neighborhood of Manhattan in the mid-1800s.

Includes sidebars, extensive illustrative material, notes, and an index.

• Three Notes about Language p. 1
• Part I A Day like No Other p. 3
• 1 "Those Monsters in Human Form" p. 5
• The First New Yorkers p. 12
• 2 Stray Dogs and Pickpockets p. 15
• Slavery in the North p. 22
• Timeline: The End of Slavery in Northern States p. 24
• 3 A City Divided by Race p. 27
• What Was Jim Crow? p. 31
• 4 "I Screamed Murder with All My Voice" p. 35
• 5 "You Will Sweat for This!" p. 37
• 6 An Admired Family p. 39
• Frederick Douglass and the Black Press p. 44
• Who Should Go to School? p. 46
• 7 A "Shameful" and "Loathsome" Issue p. 49
• Trying to Make a Difference p. 55
• William Lloyd Garrison and The Liberator p. 56
• Horace Greeley and the New York Daily Tribune p. 57
• 8 A Future U.S. President p. 59
• The Fugitive Slave Act p. 60
• Chester A. Arthur: His Early Years p. 62
• 9 Elizabeth Jennings v. Third Avenue Railroad Company p. 65
• Getting to Brooklyn p. 68
• 10 The Jury's Decision p. 71
• Part II A Forgotten Hero p. 77
• 11 An Uncanny Similarity to Rosa Parks p. 79
• 12 What Happened to Elizabeth Jennings? p. 85
• The Civil War Draft Riots p. 86
• The First Free Kindergarten for Colored Children in New York City p. 88
• 13 How a Creepy Old House Led to the Writing of This Book p. 91
• 14 Retracing Her Footsteps p. 95
• Postscript: Chester A. Arthur: Tragedy Leads to Presidency p. 101
• Bibliography p. 105
• Notes p. 113
• Author's Note about Elizabeth Jennings's Age in 1854 p. 121
• Suggested Reading p. 123
• Elizabeth Jennings's Life within a Historical Timeline p. 124
• Important Locations p. 127
• Acknowledgments p. 129
• Illustrations p. 133
• Index p. 137
• About the Author p. 143