University of Virginia Library

The incident I am about to relate should
have appeared in Chap 12th and formed a part
of the story of my trip to Washington to witness
the inauguration of President Grant. As stated
in that chapter, I was accompanied by Mrs. Isabella
Gibbons one of the teachers in the Primary department
of our school. I had told her in advance that she
was to go in the ladies car with me, instead of
the smoking car, where the rules of the road
required all colored people to travel in spite of
the fact that they were called upon to pay first
class fare, and also that this rule was in direct
violation of the Civil Rights Bill — or rather of the
15th Amendment — the above Bill had not then
been passed. In one or two instances previous to
the trip of which I write, colored persons had been
awarded quite large sums as damages against railroad companies on account
of being ejected from the cars to which their tickets

entitled them.

The tracks of the Orange
& Alexandria R. R. upon which we would travel
to Washington, formed a junction near our
school with the Virginia Central. At this place
the O & A trains always made a short stop to
change the switch, and from this point the O.
& A. ran on the V. C. track to Gordonsville where
their lines again diverged We frequently
took advantage of this arrangement by boarding
our trains at the switch and did so that day
Mrs. Gibbons was about to follow me into the ladies
car when the conductor seeing her called to
her to go back to the next car, and she, fearing
they would start the train and leave her behind did
as directed. When I saw what had happened I
immediately sought her out in the negro, otherwise
the smoking car where I sat down beside her until
the conductor came for our tickets. I asked him
if she could go into the ladies car with me "Is
she your servant?" said he. "No, she is a friend
with whom I am travelling." "I will see about
it" was the answer. "We shall put on another

car a little farther on." Of course I knew that
this pretense that the ladies car was full was
all a subterfuge, as I had just come from there
and there were plenty of vacant seats. As I was
getting interested in a new experience I made
no further appeal, but every time he came to tear
off a coupon from our tickets I gave him a look
which meant "I understand you sir." and he would
look conscious and hurry by as quickly as possible. So
I had the experience of riding in a second class
smoking car on a first class ticket to Washington
just to uphold a principle, but I told Mrs. Gibbons it
must not happen on our return.

The bridge across the Potomac was undergoing
repairs when we started for home some days later
so we had to cross the river in a steamboat and
take our train at Alexandria. As Mrs. Gibbons
followed me into the ladies car a brakeman
stopped her and ordered her back into the next
car. I turned to him and said, "She goes with
me sir." "O, is she — is she your — " "She goes with
me." He stepped back, and as she came in

she heard him say. "There, that colored woman
had gone in!" The other brakeman replied. "O well
the captain will make it all right." (They often
called the conductor — captain) I put Mrs. G. into
the seat next to the window, and told her not to move
if they told her to leave the car. — that they could not
get her out without they moved me first, and I knew
they would not attempt that, — and that if they were
rash enough to do so we could bring suit against
the company that might cost them several
thousand dollars. So she sat there nervous
and trembling when the conductor came. I
had both tickets and looked him straight in
the face as I handed them to him. He
simply said "For you and her?" I said "Yes."
and he tore a coupon from each and passed
on. When we were about half way on our journey
Mrs. Gibbons laughingly remarked, "I am afraid
I don't get $15 000 out of this trip." And thus she
had the experience of a ride from Alexandria
to Washington Charlottesville first class car to balance my experience in the smoking car because I was determined to
uphold a principle.