jan 1, 1884 - Lawsuit

Description:

In 1884, Wells-Barnett filed a lawsuit against a train car company in Memphis for unfair treatment. She had been thrown off a first-class train, despite having a ticket. Wells “fastened her teeth on the back of his hand”, as she wrote later. Although she won the case on the local level (a newspaper headline declared “Darky damsel gets damages”), the ruling was eventually overturned in federal court.

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