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A little known fact about Arthur is that, before his political career, he was a lawyer who gained a name for himself in the defence of civil rights cases. Arthur was one of the attorneys who successfully represented Elizabeth Jennings Graham in the case of Jennings v. Third Avenue Railroad. In the early 19th century, there were two common modes of public transportation: omnibuses and streetcars, both pulled by horses. But in the 1830s and early 1840s, African-Americans couldn't use public transportation if any white passenger or the driver objected. Drivers carried whips and used them to enforce this practice.
Starting in the late 1840s, there were a few special omnibuses which African-Americans could ride. These buses had large signs reading "Colored Persons Allowed", but these ran infrequently, irregularly, and often not at all.
On Sunday, 16 July 1854, Elizabeth Jennings set off for the First Colored Congregational Church, where she was organist. As she was running late, she boarded a streetcar at the corner of Pearl and Chatham streets. The conductor ordered her to get off. When she refused, the driver and the conductor brutally attacked her. They called for the aid of a police officer, and Miss Jennings was ejected from the streetcar.
There was an organized movement among African-American New Yorkers to end this discrimination, led by notables such as the plaintiff's father, Thomas, Rev. J. W. C. Pennington, and Rev. Henry Highland Garnet. Her story was publicized by Frederick Douglass, and received national attention.
Miss Jennings filed a lawsuit against the driver, the conductor, and the Third Avenue Railroad Company. She was represented by the law firm of Culver, Parker, and Arthur. Her case was handled by the firm's 24-year-old junior partner: Chester A. Arthur, future President of the United States.
In 1855, she received a verdict in her favor. In his charge to the jury, Brooklyn Circuit Court Judge William Rockwell declared:
"Colored persons if sober, well behaved and free from disease, had the same rights as others and could neither be excluded by any rules of the Company, nor by force or violence."
The jury found for Miss Jennings, and awarded damages in the amount of $225.00 (comparable to $5,000 to $10,000 today), and $22.50 in costs. The next day, the Third Avenue Railroad Company ordered its cars desegregated. New York's public transit was fully desegregated by 1861.
In Lemmon v. New York, (referred to as the "Lemmon Slave Case"), Arthur helped secure the 1860 decision that slaves being transferred to a slave state through New York would be emancipated. In November 1852, Jonathan Lemmon and his wife Juliet, who were residents of Virginia, travelled by steamer from Norfolk, Virginia to New York with eight slaves belonging to Mrs. Lemmon, for the purpose of catching a follow-on boat to Texas, where they planned to reside. The slaves were Emiline (age 23), Nancy (age 20), Lewis, brother of Nancy (age 16), Edward, brother of Emiline (age 13), Lewis and Edward, sons of Nancy (age 7), Ann, daughter of Nancy (age 5) and Amanda, daughter of Emiline (age 2). While waiting for the boat the slaves were placed in a boarding house at No. 3 Carlisle Street, where they were discovered by another African American, Louis Napoleon. On 6 November 1852, Louis presented a petition to one of the Justices of the Superior Court of New York City, the Honorable Elijah Paine, for a writ of Habeas corpus producing the slaves. The suit was based on an 1817 New York law that stated "No person held as a slave shall be imported, introduced, or brought into this State on any pretense whatever. Every such person shall be free."
On November 13, 1852, Justice Paine of the Superior Court of the City of New York held that necessity did not require the Lemmons travel to Texas via New York, thus the slaves were free according to New York state law.
Mr. Lemmon then appealed to the New York Supreme Court, in December 1857 that court affirmed the ruling of Justice Paine. Mr. Lemmon appealed to the New York Court of Appeals, who, in March 1860, ruled on a vote of 5-3 affirming the lower courts ruling that the slaves were free.
