Come learn about these pioneers in transportation!
SEPTA honored four Black activists who led the fight to desegregate the public transportation system in America, at a ceremony on Feb. 5.
ABC 6 reported that Elizabeth Jennings Graham, Octavius Catto, Rosa Parks, and John Mott Drew were honored by Philadelphia’s Transportation Authority.
Jennings Graham is notable for challenging New York City’s pre-Civil War policy of segregated street cars. Similar to Parks, she was forcibly expelled from a streetcar because she violated the social rules of the day. Like Parks, Jennings Graham was well connected and was eventually represented in court by Chester A. Arthur, the future 21st President of the United States. In 1855, Jennings Graham won her court case, and by 1860, New York City had a desegregated street car system, thanks to a New York City teacher.
Catto is notable for several reasons, but SEPTA honored him for his work in desegregating Philadelphia’s streetcars. According to the Zinn Education Project, Catto was a teacher, principal and civil rights activist whose work around voting rights and desegregation got him assassinated on Election Day in 1871. In 2017, a memorial dedicated to the memory of Catto was unveiled near Philadelphia’s City Hall. It was the first public sculpture in Philly to honor an individual Black person, and it honors both his work for free elections for Black people and his work desegregating streetcars.