Courtesy of Kansas State Historical Society via Museum of the City of New York
- In 1854, Elizabeth Jennings was forcefully prevented from boarding a streetcar to go to church.
- Jennings sued the streetcar company and was represented in court by Chester Arthur, the future US president.
- 10 years later, all of New York City's public transit systems were desegregated.
More than a century before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama, another Black woman insisted on her right to ride on a New York City streetcar — an act of defiance that eventually led to the desegregation of the city's transit systems.