25. Elizabeth Jennings Graham preceded Rosa Parks by almost a century
In the 1850s the street cars of New York City were for the most part privately owned and their operators insisted on segregating them. There were white cars and Negro cars, so designated by the owners. When Elizabeth Jennings Graham boarded a horse drawn streetcar of the Third Avenue Railroad Company she was forcibly ejected from the designated all-white car. She sued the company, demanding the end of segregated cars in the city. Her attorney was Chester A. Arthur, later President of the United States. Although she won her case and was awarded $250 in damages, the remaining privately owned streetcars in New York did not immediately desegregate. In 1865 they finally did so.