Editing Streetcar Desegregation (section)

== Background ==

Streetcars began operating in Philadelphia in the 1850s, quickly becoming essential to urban transportation. From the beginning, the private companies that operated streetcar lines refused to admit Black passengers on equal terms with whites. Some companies banned Black riders entirely; others required them to wait for specially designated "colored" cars that ran infrequently. The discrimination was particularly galling because all passengers paid the same fares and because the streetcar companies operated under franchises granted by the city—public privileges that, activists argued, should not be used to discriminate against a portion of the public. The policy forced Black Philadelphians, regardless of weather, distance, or physical condition, to walk while white passengers rode.<ref name="biddle">{{cite book |last=Biddle |first=Daniel R. |last2=Dubin |first2=Murray |title=Tasting Freedom: Octavius Catto and the Battle for Equality in Civil War America |year=2010 |publisher=Temple University Press |location=Philadelphia}}</ref>

The Civil War intensified the injustice and strengthened arguments for change. African American soldiers and their families—people who had served the Union cause—were denied the right to ride streetcars in their own city. Ministers, teachers, and other respectable Black citizens faced the humiliation of exclusion regardless of their achievements or character. The contradictions between the rhetoric of freedom and equality that justified the war and the reality of discrimination on Philadelphia's streets became increasingly difficult to defend. As the war drew to a close and the question of what rights emancipation would bring moved to the center of national debate, Philadelphia activists determined to challenge streetcar segregation as a concrete, winnable objective in the broader struggle for equality.<ref name="weigley">{{cite book |last=Weigley |first=Russell F. |title=Philadelphia: A 300-Year History |year=1982 |publisher=W.W. Norton |location=New York}}</ref>