African Americans Versus the Memphis Street Railway Company

Abstract

The traditional interpretation of the southern justice system is that African Americans rarely, if ever, won. This article examines a seemingly anomalous situation in Memphis in which at the turn of the twentieth century, African Americans successfully sued the Memphis Street Railway Company for personal injury and racial insult. African American working-class men and women were often financially compensated for physical injuries, while African American middle-class women won their lawsuits against white conductors who insulted their personal dignity. These lawsuits amounted to personal victories for the plaintiffs but were in actuality political losses for African Americans in general. Through a detailed examination of race, class, and gender, the authors show how notions of middle-class respectability were contested by blacks and whites to influence the verdict in these lawsuits while simultaneously reinforcing negative stereotypes of African Americans that relegated the race to second-class citizens.