“I refused to move, and they clutched me, head, neck and shoulders… I had interwoven myself among the seats. In dragging me out, it must have cost the company twenty five or thirty dollars, for I tore up seats and all .”
– Frederick Douglass on being evicted from a Massachusetts railroad car
”Out of Town on a Rail
The phrase “Jim Crow” is associated with segregation in the American south.
It may be surprising that the term was first used for segregated railway cars
in Massachusetts. “Jim Crow” cars were sometimes called “Jimmies.” Shortly
after boarding in Lynn, Frederick Douglass refused to move to a separate car
on the Eastern Railroad. The conductor and several assistants ripped up the
seat, with Douglass in place, and ejected him from the train.
1844 petition. . .
Ralph Waldo Emerson signed this 1844 petition that included a protest against railroad discrimination. A benevolent fi gure by all accounts, Emerson was the great grandson of Cornelius Emerson who was actively involved in the slave trade.
- Massachusetts Archives
Frederick Douglass. . .
Frederick Douglass signed this 1842 petition against railroad discrimination that he had personally experienced in Massachusetts. The petition includes the names of William Lloyd Garrison and community activist William Cooper Nell.
- Massachusetts Archives
Ralph Waldo Emerson. . .
Ralph Waldo Emerson signed this 1844 petition that included a protest against railroad discrimination. A benevolent figure by all accounts, Emerson was the great grandson of Cornelius Emerson who was actively involved in the slave trade.
- Massachusetts Archives
Jim Crow
“Jim Crow” was a
character of derision
in minstrel shows.
“Jim Crow” laws
separated the races.
Rating the Railroads
The Liberator, edited by William Lloyd Garrison, published a “Traveler’s Directory,” rating Massachusetts railroads. The Boston and Lowell Railroad and the Boston and Worcester were listed as “equally free for all.” The Boston, New Bedford and Providence Railroads maintained “a vile distinction enforced by brutal assaults.” The Eastern Railroad had the worst record. Using tactics that anticipated the modern Civil Rights movement, including “ride-ins” and boycotts, protesters changed its policies.
