From Slavery to Civil Rights LIVERPOOL STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL SLAVERY, 17 From Slavery to Civil Rights On the Streetcars of New Orleans 1830s–Present Hilary Mc Laughlin-Stonham From Slavery to Civil Rights Liverpool University Press First published 2020 by Liverpool University Press 4 Cambridge Street Liverpool L69 7ZU Copyright © 2020 Hilary Mc Laughlin-Stonham The right of Hilary Mc Laughlin-Stonham to be identified as the author of this book has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data A British Library CIP record is available ISBN 978-1-78962-224-9 hardback ISBN 978-1-80034-855-4 paperback ISBN 978-1-78962-258-4 epdf An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library, having been made possible by the generous support of the LUP Open Access Author Fund. To Matt and Matilda with love, and for Dad and Jeffrey Contents Contents List of Tables viii List of Illustrations ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1 Legal and Social Colour Distinctions in Antebellum Louisiana 21 2 Streetcars and Protest 53 3 The Rise of White Supremacy 83 4 Streetcars and the End of Colour 123 5 Resistance and Compliance 159 6 Conclusion 195 Epilogue 201 Bibliography 207 Index 251 • vii • Tables tables Table 1. Population of Orleans and New Orleans, 1861 32 Table 2. Population of Louisiana outside Orleans Parish, 1860 32 Table 3. Population and Ridership in New Orleans 151 Table 4. Population and Ridership in New Orleans 161 • viii • Illustrations IIllustrations Figure 1. View of Canal Street, New Orleans, 1857 26 Figure 2. Map of the Parishes of Louisiana, 1860 31 Figure 3. St. Charles Street Railroad Horsecar, circa 1880 81 Figure 4. Electric Cars at Canal and Dauphine Streets, 1898 111 Figure 5. Local Streetcar Route Map, circa 1910 120 Figure 6. New Orleans Streetcar Map, 1904 121 Figure 7. A South Claiborne Car on Carondelet Street, 1951 193 • ix • Acknowledgements Acknowledgements This book has gone through several different stages on the way to completion and I would like to thank the staff and departments at Ulster University for their support when this was initially research for a PhD. In Louisiana I received great assistance from the staff at Earl K. Long Library, New Orleans University, Howard-Tilton Library, Tulane University, the Amistad Research Centre at Tulane University, the Special Collections staff at Louisiana State University, the Librarians at New Orleans Public Library and the Williams Research Centre. Many of the staff involved continued to support this project on my return from America via the internet and through Ulster University. The students at York St. John University were the first to be taught classes on streetcars and urban space on their Cityscapes module and I’d like to thank them for their feedback and enthusiasm. George Friedman, a fellow streetcar researcher, shared enthusiasm and his own collections, some of which appear in this book, as did other contributors. Fellow researchers Sinead, Michael and Will continue to encourage and support me with their friendship in all my endeavours. My family have shown the same patience and support on the phone and in person, and this has meant a lot. • xi • Introduction Introduction From the early 1830s until the present, New Orleans has been the urban centre of the longest continuously running streetcar system in the world. For almost half that time, segregation, first as company policy and then as law, segregated white and black passengers in the streetcars. This sectarian system was signed into laws by a succession of governors and maintained throughout the parishes by local governments. Together with the actions of their white constituents, the conduct of officials was often influenced by factors such as tradition and custom. Racial decisions were local decisions and the role of the conductor, supported by the driver, was paramount in deciding and maintaining the racial line. What is more, the role and conduct of conductors and the ‘place’ of black and white passengers mirrored racial relations in the city and were impacted by events both locally and nationally. Analysis of New Orleans streetcars opens up key questions that are explored in the unfolding chapters. Within these chapters the origins and motivation for segregation laws in the state are considered, as is the degree to which they were implemented de facto and de jure. The chapters also consider commitment by the state and to what extent influential personalities were responsible for a distinctive political and social culture that led to particular values being coded into segregation laws. The chrono- logical order of the chapters and application of the focus to New Orleans streetcars illustrate how these aspects of segregation unfolded over the entire segregation period. Nonetheless, within the chapters several themes such as the malleability of race and the importance of class distinctions, or a lack thereof, on streetcars are recurrent, as these were common themes throughout the era. The aim of this book is not to glamorise or castigate the proprietors of Jim Crow but to examine Louisiana’s principle politicians behind the legislation, determining what drove them to restrict • 1 • From Slavery to Civil Rights and keep black citizens subjugated within their jurisdiction. The book uses the streetcars to question why politicians maintained and revised some laws more readily than others and if they were in lockstep with their mainly white constituents. By appraising the major city of importance in Louisiana, this book examines how laws trickled down and influenced common-place behaviour towards the statutes in the parish of Orleans and how this presented in the public space of the streetcars both during and after slavery. This is accomplished by demonstrating how the reality of life within the legislation was both in keeping with and far removed from the dictates of the governor and the Legislature. The social and traditional factors that led to tolerance and intolerance of extra-legal behaviour lead to conclusions on how effectively Jim Crow was maintained in Louisiana and how committed the governors were to segregation. This is achieved through the medium of the streetcars. Jim Crow Laws For most black Americans, the end of slavery brought on a new era of opportunity, political, civil and, to some extent, social equality. During the turbulent years of Reconstruction, blacks in Louisiana served as governor, lieutenant governor, state representatives, mayor, policemen, businessmen and all manner of influential roles which allowed them to secure equal rights under the law. After the withdrawal of federal troops in 1877, a slow shift began. Prompted by the 1883 Supreme Court decision to reverse perceived unconstitutional civil rights legislation, this shift culminated in the advent of Jim Crow, the legal, social and often extra-legal order that segregated and often isolated blacks from mainstream Louisiana society.1 Louisiana was not the only state to enforce Jim Crow restrictions on its black community. Jim Crow laws acted as guidelines for race relations all over the United States of America between 1890 and 1965. Northern and Southern states recognised Jim Crow legislation, but the laws were more predominant in the eleven former Confederate states, where there was a history of slavery and a much larger black population. ‘Jim Crow’ was the name of a black-faced minstrel character played by white showman Thomas Rice in the 1830s. This caricature of a black male resonated with white audiences and became synonymous with the laws that attempted to solve the ‘problem’ of the black intruder in an exclusive white society.2 1 Catherine Lewis and J. Richard Lewis, Jim Crow America: A Documentary History (Fayetteville: The University of Arkansas, 2009) xi. 2 Blair L.M. Kelley, Right to Ride: Streetcar Boycotts and African American Citizenship in the Era of Plessy V. Ferguson (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2010) 16. • 2 • Introduction Laws against the black population were not a new phenomenon. Slavery, legalised and regulated for centuries, only detrimentally affected the slaves, who were by definition black. Free blacks had also existed in this environment, often having their own wealth and influence, always, however, under the shadow and caprices of white lawmakers. Jim Crow laws differed across the former Confederate states as did the experience of whites and blacks in those states. Virginia and North Carolina, for example, forbade fraternal beneficiary societies from admitting both black and white members whereas Texas Jim Crow laws did not allude to fraternal societies but specifically outlawed mixed boxing matches. Likewise, many of the states passed similar laws regarding marriages between blacks and whites but the punishments for infringing these laws differed greatly.3 In 1915 North Carolina and Alabama passed laws prohibiting white nurses from attending black male patients. Violation of the act in North Carolina held a fine of $50 while in Alabama punishment extended to six months hard labour.4 One law that was passed by all Southern states was segregation on public transport which was recognised in every Southern state by 1900.5 This illuminates the early 1900s as a time when a harsher system of white supremacy developed across the South. As the character of white supremacy evolved to merge separation of the races and the subjugation of blacks, this was reflected on public transport with the segregation of the streetcars. Again, the origins, motivation and application of this law differed depending on the state, with penalties that ranged from no action to small and large fines, and in some cases prison.