{"id":295,"date":"2018-05-01T21:30:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T01:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/?page_id=295"},"modified":"2018-05-06T16:01:24","modified_gmt":"2018-05-06T20:01:24","slug":"streetcar-boycott","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/26-richmond-protests\/streetcar-boycott\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Tradition: The 1904 Richmond Streetcar Boycott and the Long History of Dissent in Black American History"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

On the evening of April 19th, 1904, at least 600 Black Richmonders gathered for a rally to discuss a plan of resistance. <\/span>The <\/span>Times Dispatch<\/span><\/a> <\/span>printed the headline, <\/span>\u201c<\/span>Separate the Races,<\/span>\u201d <\/span>on April 17, 1904, <\/span>highlighting <\/span>the watershed law to which these folks were responding. <\/span> <\/span> <\/span>A new Virginia law <\/span>effectively allowed <\/span>segregation on public transportation<\/span> and in turn, <\/span>catalyzed a pre-Mar<\/span>tin Luther King movement of non-<\/span>violent<\/span>, <\/span>civil disobedience in the form of a mass boycott of <\/span>streetcars<\/span> in Richmond, V<\/span>irginia<\/span>. <\/span>This movement, and others like it that occurred across the nation, have<\/span> since been <\/span>erased <\/span>from our collective popular memory. To many Americans, <\/span>B<\/span>lack people<\/span> were brought here in the 17th century to be enslaved, Lincoln gave <\/span>them their <\/span>freedom with the Emancipation Proclamation, then the Civil Rights movement <\/span>happened <\/span>in the <\/span>Sixties<\/span>, and finally,<\/span> Obama was<\/span> elected about fifty years following<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, dissent is as much a part of the Black American tradition as <\/span>call and response<\/span><\/a> or <\/span>signifying<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>This streetcar boycott is <\/span> a<\/span> lens through which we can deconstruct the misconception that the fight for <\/span>c<\/span>ivi<\/span>l rights is limited to <\/span>Martin<\/span>\u2019s <\/span>dream or Rosa<\/span>\u2019s refusal to give up<\/span> <\/span>her<\/span> seat<\/span> on a bus<\/span>. <\/span>B<\/span>lack resistance<\/span> involved many more actors, a longer timeline, and <\/span>a <\/span>rich history of local protest.<\/span>. April of 1904 in Richmond, V<\/span>irginia <\/span> <\/span>serves as <\/span>one<\/span> starting place to recreate this more holistic narrative<\/span> of both black resistance and protests in Richmond<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

T<\/span>he first law mandating segregation on public transportation was passed in 1891 in Georgia, however it left the ultimate discretion to the streetcar company. <\/span>In the wake of Georgia\u2019s law<\/span>, cities started to pass their own laws to go along with state ordinances.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0Some <\/span>ordinances<\/span>, like the Virginia law from 1902<\/span> focused on Fairfax and Alexandria<\/span>, stated that segregation was only required in <\/span>particular counties<\/span>. This bill originally included the whole state <\/span>but traction companies opposed it due to its difficulty to enforce and the price of implementing it. Prior to this, Virginia segregated one line or route from Richmond to the Seven Pines neighborho<\/span>od in Henrico County<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>That same year, Louisiana became the first state to implement a mandatory segregation statute statewide. In 1904, Virginia passed a new law that allowed, but did not require<\/span>,<\/span> segregation <\/span>on <\/span>its public transportation system<\/span>. With the passage of this bill<\/span>,<\/span> the Virginia Passenger and Power company announced that they planned to authorize their conductors to segregate cars at their discretion as they moved about the greater Richmond area.<\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In turn-of-the-twentieth century Richmond<\/span>,<\/span> Black people and white people<\/span> hadn\u2019t naturally segregated themselves<\/span>. <\/span>P<\/span>eople often<\/span> just<\/span> sat where they desired before Jim Crow segregation <\/span>ordinances came to be. Because of this, many Black people were shocked and dismayed by <\/span>a new <\/span> effort to restrict their movements<\/span>, and \u201cSeparate the Races<\/span>,<\/span>\u201d after years of coexisting, <\/span>however uneasily<\/span>. <\/span>According to John Mitchell Jr., editor of the Richmond <\/span>Planet<\/span>, and <\/span>the <\/span>key <\/span>leader of th<\/span>e<\/span> boycott, this new call for segregation represented a new Richmond to which he was not accustomed. He went on to claim that since the end of the Civil War, this ordinance had sparked a \u201cbitter feeling of racial antagonism\u201d more than any other act had done before. <\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/span>nstead of simply accepting these new changes, black leaders across Richmond decided that it was time to organize.<\/span> <\/span>Whe<\/span>n <\/span>Mitchell <\/span>invited<\/span> <\/span>the <\/span>most prominent, yet <\/span>mostly <\/span>conservative, Black people<\/span> in <\/span>the city <\/span>for a meeting to discuss a <\/span>possible <\/span>protest, close to two hundred <\/span>people <\/span>showed up. <\/span>By <\/span>April 19<\/span>th<\/span>, <\/span>the<\/span> conversation <\/span>had grown to over 600<\/span>. <\/span>Four days later<\/span>, <\/span>The Planet<\/span><\/a> <\/span> ran the headline, \u201cCitizens Protest<\/span>,<\/span>\u201d officially <\/span>declaring <\/span>the mass boycott.\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Beyond the general injustice of mandated segregation, Black Richmonders also <\/span>objected<\/span> <\/span>that <\/span>the discretion of segregation on these streetcars <\/span>was left<\/span> <\/span>to <\/span>conductors. The <\/span>St. Luke Herald<\/span>, run by Maggie Lena Walker, the first woman president of a bank, also reported on this meeting. One article claimed, \u201cthe very dangerous power placed in the hands of hot headed and domineering young white men. . .would certainly provoke trouble.\u201d <\/span>F<\/span>ear of unqualified white men having too much power<\/span> also animated the boycott<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Because of the many different <\/span>aspects of this<\/span> issue, <\/span>and the <\/span>complex<\/span> dynamics within the black community, <\/span>it makes sense that there were many different tactics in combatting this unjust legislation.<\/span> <\/span>Many different <\/span>responses <\/span>were offered, including not protesting at all. An alternative tactic of resistance included b<\/span>ank leaders<\/span> who <\/span>agreed to join together to financially support an all Black transit system, not in the name of competition but in the name of preserving peace between the white and Black communities<\/span>. <\/span>Although this Black transit system never came to fruition, Black <\/span>Richmonders <\/span>d<\/span>id participate by deciding to <\/span>walk<\/span> and remaining steadfast in their efforts<\/span>— so much so that <\/span>T<\/span>he Planet<\/span> reported that there was a high need for fish salt and witch hazel since so many people had to soak their feet<\/span><\/span>. Although the success and duration of the boycott<\/span> has been disputed, <\/span>o<\/span>n May 14<\/span>th<\/span>, 1904, <\/span>The<\/span> Planet<\/span><\/a> reported that 80<\/span> to <\/span>90 percent of Richmond\u2019s Black population were walking.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

This movement was deliberately relatively conservative. When he described the meeting called to discuss action against the segregation mandate, John Mitchell Jr<\/span>.<\/span> <\/span>noted<\/span>, ” it was the opin<\/span>ion of the body that the colored<\/span> people should do all in their power to promote peace and avoid any clash or disorder on the streetcars.” <\/span>The Richmond Times-Dispatch<\/span><\/a> la<\/span>ter reported on the April 19<\/span>th<\/span> meeting<\/span>: “There was no turbulence, no fierce denunciation and no fire-eating, as many had feared. On the contrary, conservatism was urged….” Mitchell and other leaders <\/span>insisted on peaceful<\/span> protest<\/span>. They<\/span> <\/span>invok<\/span>ed <\/span> respectability politics <\/span>as <\/span>the best route through which to achieve their goal. <\/span>Mitchell <\/span>said <\/span>he <\/span>warned protestors not to be provoked into violence. When Black folks rode the streetcars, they were to follow the law but overall, they were urged to avoid them altogether. <\/span>Despite their efforts, the protest was seen by many as a failure since Virginia voted to implement statewide, mandatory streetcar segregation in 1906.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Although conservatism and respectability are often looked down upon today, it\u2019s crucial not to miss the inherent radical nature of this movement. Between 1904<\/span> and <\/span>1905, 133 Black people were <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>lynched<\/span><\/span>, <\/span> <\/span>including four in <\/span>Virginia. The<\/span> consequences of existing while Black, let alone protesting while Black were monumental. <\/span><\/p>\n

With this, one can see t<\/span>hat the tradition of nonviolent<\/span> civil disobedience neither began or ended with Martin Luther King Jr<\/span>. <\/span> Instead, Black folks have been organizing and fighting for their liberation ever since they got to this country.<\/span> <\/span>The story of the Richmond Streetcar boycott may not have ended segregation on public transportation, but it still deserves its place in the history of Black American dissent<\/span> and in the <\/span>wider <\/span>history of protests that have occurred in Richmond<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

For too long, <\/span>in popular memory, <\/span>the Black experience has been whitewashed or reduced\u00a0<\/span>to simple, easily digestible narratives of progress. <\/span>For too long, the history of \u201cprogress\u201d<\/span> in the <\/span>Black<\/span> narrative has both lacked nuance and inclusivity of experiences across identifiers like gender and socio-economic status. <\/span>However, the Black experience hasn\u2019t been simple and progress, whatever that means, certainly has not been linear. When we forget movements like the stre<\/span>etcar boycotts that swept the na<\/span>tion, we forget the long standing tradition of Black resistance is not relegated to the Civil Rights Movement or even<\/span> to<\/span> #BlackLivesMatter. To remember that Black resistance is <\/span>enduring is to acknowledge<\/span> both how far we\u2019ve come and how far we have to go. As John Mitchell Jr. <\/span>declared<\/span>, (Black folks) \u201cshall protest and protest. We shall agitate and agitate. We shall never willingly submit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

For Further Reading: <\/span><\/p>\n

Blair Murphy<\/span> Kelley<\/span>. <\/span>Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy v. Ferguson. <\/span>University of North Carolina Press, 2010.<\/span><\/p>\n

Leon F. Litwack. <\/span>Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in Jim Crow<\/span>. Vintage Books, 1999.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStay off the Cars\u201d- The Boycott of the Virginia Passenger and Power Company. <\/span><\/p>\n

Susan D. Carle<\/span>. Defining the Strugg<\/span>le: National Organizing for <\/span>Racial<\/span> Justice, 1880-19<\/span>15.<\/span> Oxford University Press, 2013.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the evening of April 19th, 1904, at least 600 Black Richmonders gathered for a rally to discuss a plan of resistance. The Times Dispatch printed the headline, \u201cSeparate the Races,\u201d on April 17, 1904, highlighting the watershed law to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2867,"featured_media":0,"parent":178,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"onecolumn-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-295","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2867"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/295\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/rvaprotest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}