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The Capital City Street Railway, also known as the Lightning Route, was the first citywide system of
It was on this system that Montgomery's segregated racial seating was established in the early 1900s, which continued on the city buses after 1936. There was a Montgomery streetcar boycott from 1900 to 1902 to protest segregated service. However, the city council passed the Montgomery Streetcar Act in 1906 that further mandated a continuation of segregation. Segregation ended with the famous
The Capital City Street Railway, also known as the Lightning Route, was the first citywide system of streetcar
A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include s ...
s established in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...
, on April 15, 1886.The Alabama Department of Archives and History page mentions streetcar development in 1886 at "Oak Park Montgomery’s First Public Park" and "Smith-Joseph-Stratton House" at This early technology was developed by the Belgian-American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
inventor Charles Joseph Van Depoele
Charles Joseph Van Depoele (27 April 1846 – 18 March 1892) was a Belgian-American electrical engineering, electrical engineer, inventor, and pioneer in electric railway technology, including the first trolley pole.
Biography Early life in Be ...
. Joseph Arthur Gaboury, a French Canadian from Quebec, was the owner of the horse-drawn system that was converted to electricity. One trolley route ended at the Cloverdale neighborhood. This early public transportation system made Montgomery one of the first cities to "depopulate" its residential areas at the city center through transportation-facilitated suburban development. The system operated for exactly 50 years, until April 15, 1936, when it was retired in a big ceremony and replaced by buses.
Racial segregation
It was on this system that Montgomery's segregated racial seating was established in the early 1900s, which continued on the city buses after 1936. There was a Montgomery streetcar boycott from 1900 to 1902 to protest segregated service. However, the city council passed the Montgomery Streetcar Act in 1906 that further mandated a continuation of segregation. Segregation ended with the famous Montgomery bus boycott
The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social boycott, protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United ...
started by Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, in defiance of Jim Crow laws, which sparke ...
and led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
and E. D. Nixon that lasted from December 2, 1955, to December 20, 1956.
City ownership
In 1974, the City of Montgomery took over ownership of the system that was then known at the Montgomery Area Transit System or MATS. Since the centennial of the Lightning Route in 1986 there have been various initiatives to re-establish a light-rail system in Montgomery. In place of light rail a system of tourist trolleys (diesel buses) known as the Lightning Route Trolleys currently operates in the city's historic districts.See also
* Berlin Straßenbahn - a Berlin electric streetcar system that started operation in 1881. * ''Browder v. Gayle'' * History of trams * Richmond Union Passenger Railway - a Richmond, Virginia electric streetcar system that started operation in 1888. * Union Station (Montgomery) - a preserved Lightning Route streetcar is housed in a building near the old railroad station.References