Kate Brown (plaintiff)
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Katherine Brown (c. 1840 – 1883) was an employee of the
United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
and the plaintiff in ''Railroad Company v. Brown'' (1873), a case decided by the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
. She was
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
.


Career

Brown was a US Senate employee "in charge of the ladies' retiring room".


Historical significance

Katherine Brown boarded a train in
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,
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, when traveling towards
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, on February 8, 1868. Brown entered "what they call the white people's car." As she was boarding, a railroad policeman told her to move to a different car. She replied, "This car will do." He told her the car she had entered "was for ladies," and "no damned nigger was allowed to ride in that car anyhow; never was and never would be." The railroad police officer and another employee grabbed Brown and, after a violent struggle that lasted six minutes, in which she was beaten and kicked, threw her on the boarding platform, dragged her along the platform, and threatened to arrest her. She asked, "What are you going to arrest me for? What have I done? Have I committed robbery? Have I murdered anybody?" Brown's injuries were so severe that she was bedridden for several weeks and spit up blood from hemorrhages in her lungs. Senators
Charles Sumner Charles Sumner (January 6, 1811March 11, 1874) was an American lawyer and statesman who represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate from 1851 until his death in 1874. Before and during the American Civil War, he was a leading American ...
and
Justin Morrill Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...
called for a formal investigation, and Senator Charles Drake agreed. A resolution was passed on February 10, and a Senate committee heard testimony later that month. Brown sued the railway company for damages and was awarded $1,500 in damages in the district court. The railway company appealed, and the case eventually went before the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
. On November 17, 1873, in an opinion delivered by Justice David Davis, the Court held that racial segregation on the railroad line was not allowed under its Congressional charter, which stated "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of race." Davis dismissed the company's "
separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protectio ...
" argument as "an ingenious attempt to evade a compliance with the obvious meaning of the requirement" of the 1863 charter and decided in favor of Brown.''Railroad Company v. Brown''
84 U.S. 445 (1873); US Supreme Court Case, Justia.com
The Court held that white and Black passengers must be treated with equality in the use of the railroad's cars: Brown recovered from her injuries and remained a Senate employee until 1881.


Honors and awards

Congressional Black Associates, which supports Congressional staff, honored Brown by naming one of its Trailblazer Awards in her honor.


See also

* List of 19th-century African-American civil rights activists


References


External links


RAILROAD COMPANY v. BROWN, US Supreme Court, 84 U.S. 445, 21 L.Ed. 675, 17 Wall. 445 (1873)Testimony before a Committee of the US Senate
*Report of the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, June 17, 1868 (No. 131, 40th Congress, 2nd Session)
"Patronage and Protest in Kate Brown's Washington
by
Kate Masur Kate Masur is an American historian and author. She is a professor of history at Northwestern University. Her book ''Until Justice Be Done'' was a 2022 Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the American Historical Association The American His ...
, ''Journal of American History'', 99(4), 1047-1071 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jas650 {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Kate 1840s births 1883 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights American civil rights activists People from Virginia African-American activists 19th-century American women American women civil rights activists 19th-century African-American women 19th-century African-American people