I read one article in The New York Times with particular interest because it focused on a woman who had lived here a century before Parks’ arrest: The Schoolteacher on the Streetcar.

I had never heard of Elizabeth Jennings, who was brutally thrown off a whites-only streetcar in 1854, sued the streetcar company, and actually won. And neither had any of my third- and fourth-grade students.

We all agreed that this was wrong. New Yorkers and others needed to know about her! We immediately began planning a play about her to present at our Martin Luther King, Jr. Day presentation in January of 2006. I began scrounging around for more information and found that there wasn’t much. No books, a few articles. But I did come across a letter to the editor in the Times that got us all thinking. The letter, from the Head of Education at the Museum of the City of New York, mentioned a failed 1991 effort among history club students there to get a street named for Jennings.

When I read this to my class, excitement began to bubble up. What if we tried that again? What if we could actually get New York City to name something after this unknown hero? I promised my kids that I would find out how streets get named (or co-named, as it turns out). I explained that I didn’t know if our efforts would be successful, but at least we could try.

To make a long story short, we did it! We found out that to do a co-naming, you have to gather petition signatures and make a presentation at a community board meeting. We spent a day in the area where Jennings was thrown off the streetcar, and all of my students fearlessly approached passersby to ask for signatures. Those students who could attend a community board meeting in the evening did so (twice), reading speeches that the whole class had collaborated on writing. I mostly stood back, obtained practical information, organized trips, and let the kids do the talking. And ultimately, the New York City Council passed a bill that would permanently commemorate Elizabeth Jennings at the corner of Spruce Street and Park Row—across from City Hall. The sign went up in June of 2007 and our entire school came to celebrate!

Writing this fifteen years later, I’m happy to report that Elizabeth Jennings (also known by her married name, Elizabeth Jennings Graham) has become much more widely known. Manhattan Borough Historian Celedonia “Cal” Jones told me that our work convinced him to add Jennings to the second edition of the Encyclopedia of New York City in 2010. Jennings is featured, along with mention of our school, in the Museum of the City of New York’s permanent exhibition New York at Its Core, which opened in 2016. More recently, in 2019, New York City announced plans to build several new statues of women in all five boroughs, with a statue of Jennings to be placed outside Grand Central Terminal. The New York Transit Museum now features Jennings on its website and has run several public programs about her. And she is featured in the New York City Department of Education curriculum “Hidden Voices: Untold Stories of New York City History.”

In addition, there are now several books about Jennings for all ages:

Streetcar to Justice: How Elizabeth Jennings Won the Right to Ride in New York
by Amy Hill Hearth (2018).
This book is appropriate for upper elementary students on up to adults!

America's First Freedom Rider: Elizabeth Jennings, Chester A. Arthur, and the Early Fight for Civil Rights
by Jerry Mikorenda (2020).
This book is aimed at adults.

Lizzie Demands a Seat!
by Beth Anderson, illustrated by E.B. Lewis (2020).
This is a picture book.