The First American Civil Rights Movement 0
In the 1800s, free blacks were not free.
In an eerie precursor to Montgomery, black folks were not allowed to ride the street cars in Philadelphia or to otherwise live as free persons. Black folks who tried to ride street cars were subject to beatings, unless they stayed on the platform outside the body of the car.
Radio Times discusses the first American civil rights movement, which included gaining the right to ride street cars in Philly. The movement was news to the authors of the book, news to the interviewer, and news to me, even though my field of study in history was U. S. Southern (yeah, Philly ain’t southern, but even so this was relevant).
From the website:
Follow the link to learn more or listen here (MP3).
Afterthought:
It is so much easier to deny rather than to confront or admit bigotry.
Hence the fiction that the Civil War was about anything–anything–other than chattel slavery.
