Blair L. M. Kelley's Right To Ride: Streetcar Boycott

Blair L. M. Kelley’s Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy V. Ferguson tells stories of different desegregation movements on trains and streetcars at the turn of the twentieth century. Her book is the first account that connects the roots of segregation and dissent in the antebellum North, the legal efforts against segregated rails in New Orleans, and the streetcar boycotts in several southern cities. She not only describes the events but also deals with the questions of culture, gender, and leadership and their significant roles in black protests against segregation. Kelley introduces her book with a common misconception of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956 that

On the Southern trains, African Americans were forced to travel in the baggage car attached behind the engine that was the smokiest and the least comfortable form of travel. In some places like New Orleans, well-to-do free people of color were able to purchase first-class tickets and ride with white passengers in the “ladies’ car.” However, they were often forced to ride in the second-class smoking car that urged them to resist and file lawsuits, most notably the Plessy v. Ferguson. Mix-raced people of New Orleans, Afro-Creoles and American Africans, united against the “star-car” system and the Louisiana law segregating trains. They set up a test case to end segregation. In Virginia, the passage of segregation law caused the division of black middle class, the emergence of the press’ role, and growing presence of women in the resistance against segregation. Kelley demonstrates the class division between two prominent leaders of black communities in Richmond, editor John Mitchell Jr. and Maggie Lena Walker. Mitchell insisted that lower-class whites pushed for segregation, and African Americans should turn to middle-class whites for help. Walker advocated the unity of African Americans in the civil rights movement and economic independence. In Savannah, protesters achieved some success against segregation in 1872 and 1899, but they also had to face with white Progressivists’ purpose with

He used the press as a tool to address white and African American citizens, explaining the unnecessity of segregation laws on public conveyances since the two races had traveled in harmony the last forty years and there was no tension between them. In response to Virginia Passenger and Power’s policy, he asked his black fellow citizens not to use the streetcars and encouraged them to defend themselves against injustice and inequality. He insisted that the lack of passengers on the streetcars would result in the economic collapse of the company, which would abandon the voluntary segregation law. Although Mitchell represented a different view of racism in white society than that of Maggie Lena Walker, they united for the cause of defending black citizenship and organized a two-year boycott of streetcars in Richmond. Mitchell’s call for walk instead of ride spread across the country, gaining support from black advocates across the country and inspiring many southern cities to take action against segregation. Although the Virginia Passenger and Power Company did not stay in business, the boycott was unsuccessful. The General Assembly passed the law of mandated segregation on public