The president who amazed America
What happened after 'Death by Lightning'
Elizabeth Jennings was running late for Sunday services on July 16, 1854 when she and a friend tried to board a horse-drawn streetcar on Manhattan’s Third Avenue. Jennings was a 27-year-old teacher at the African Free School and the organist at the First Colored Congregational Church.
The railcar lacked a “Colored Persons Allowed” sign, but Jennings insisted to the conductor that they couldn’t afford to wait for the next car. “Well, you may go in,” he said, “But remember if the passengers raise any objections you shall go out, whether or no, or I’ll put you out.”
As author Scott S. Greenberger recounts, Jennings shot back, “I am a respectable person, born and raised in New York. I don’t know where you were born, but you are a good-for-nothing impudent fellow for insulting decent persons while on their way to church.”
The conductor and driver grabbed her arms and tried to remove Jennings from the car, but she held firm, until a…
