The car was effectually blocked up, and before it could move on, Sojourner had jumped aboard… The angry conductor told her to go forward where the horses were, or he would put her out. She then gave three tremendous yelps, “I want to ride! I want to ride!! I want to ride!!!" Consternation seized the passing crowd-people, carriages, gocarts of every description stood still. Soon another followed, and she raised her hand again, but they also turned away. Not long after this, Sojourner, having occasion to ride, signaled the car, but neither conductor nor driver noticed her. A law was now passed giving the colored people equal car privileges with the white. Unwilling to submit to this state of things, she complained to the president of the street railroad, who ordered the Jim Crow car to be taken off. She would gladly have availed herself of the street cars but, although there was on each track one car called the Jim Crow car, nominally for the accommodation of colored people, yet should they succeed in getting on at all they would seldom have more than the privilege of standing, as the seats were usually filled with white folks. While Sojourner was engaged in the hospital, she often had occasion to procure articles from various parts of the city for the sick soldiers, and would sometimes be obliged to walk a long distance, carrying her burdens upon her arm. Shimm Professor of Law at Duke University School of Law Document Excerpt
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |