On May 7, 1867, African American demonstrators in New Orleans staged a powerful “ride-in” protest to challenge segregation on the city’s streetcar system. Just two years after the end of the Civil War, Black citizens demanded equal access to public transportation by boarding cars designated for white passengers. The peaceful yet defiant act ignited similar protests across the South, including in Mobile, Alabama, and other Reconstruction-era cities. These early civil disobedience campaigns laid critical groundwork for the later, more widely known bus boycotts of the 20th century. The riders’ courage in confronting racial injustice helped spark broader conversations about civil rights in postwar America.
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