Photo credits: Click Americana

Congressman Arthur Mitchell (D-Illinois) successfully argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that African-Americans were entitled to railroad accommodations equal to white passengers.

A conductor forced Mitchell to give up his first-class accommodations for a “Jim Crow” car on a trip from Chicago to Arkansas in 1937. Mitchell, the only African-American congressman of the era and the first Black Democrat elected to Congress, brought the case before the High Court in March 1941.

The Supreme Court would unanimously rule in Mitchell’s favor on April 28, 1941 (Middleton, 2012).

Reference: Middleton, B. (2012, April 28). This Day in Black History: April 28, 1941. BET.com. https://www.bet.com/news/national/2012/04/28/this-day-in-black-history-april-28-1941.html

*BlackThen.com writer and historian Victor Trammell edited this report.