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Wells to give up her seat and move to the smoking car, which was already crowded with other passen-
gers. The year before, Supreme Court had struck down the federal Civil Rights Act of 1875, which
banned racial discrimination in public accommodations. Wells however refused to give up her seat—71
years before Rosa Parks showed similar resistance on a bus. The conductor, and two other men, dragged
Wells out of the car. When she returned to Memphis, she gained notoriety after writing a newspaper
article for The Living Way, a black church weekly, about her treatment on the train. She then hired an
African-American attorney to sue the railroad. When her lawyer was paid off by the railroad, she hired
a white attorney, and won her case. On December 24, 1884, the local circuit court granted her a $500
settlement. We were unable to determine for how long Wells’ “Forum” lasted, there are no records of it.
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continued