Editing Caroline LeCount (section)

== Streetcar Campaign ==

LeCount's most significant civil rights contribution involved the campaign for streetcar desegregation that she and Catto jointly pursued. Her personal experience of discrimination—being ejected from streetcars for her race—provided the injury that legal challenge could address. Her 1867 suit against a streetcar company, following her forcible removal from a car, contributed to the pressure that produced Pennsylvania's law prohibiting discrimination in public transportation.<ref name="biddle"/>

The campaign's strategy combined individual challenges like LeCount's with broader organizing that the vigilance committee and other Black organizations pursued. Her willingness to endure the indignity of forcible ejection, and to pursue legal remedy despite the obstacles such pursuit faced, demonstrated courage that the campaign required. The victory when it came—the law's passage and subsequent enforcement—validated tactics that her involvement had exemplified.<ref name="silcox"/>

Her role in the campaign, though sometimes overshadowed by Catto's more prominent leadership, represented significant contribution to a victory whose importance extended beyond Philadelphia to national significance. The streetcar desegregation victory predated by nearly a century the Montgomery bus boycott that later generations would celebrate, the Philadelphia campaign establishing precedent that subsequent movements would echo.<ref name="biddle"/>