HoW: History on Wednesday | Suing for citizenship? Black litigants in Jim Crow Memphis – School of Humanities HoW: History on Wednesday | Suing for citizenship? Black litigants in Jim Crow Memphis – School of Humanities

HoW: History on Wednesday | Suing for citizenship? Black litigants in Jim Crow Memphis

Dr Hollie Pich | University of Sydney

Suing for citizenship? Black litigants in Jim Crow Memphis

In the early twentieth-century, the rate of personal injury cases skyrocketed in America, with litigants seeking compensation from streetcar and railroad companies packing courtrooms around the nation. In Memphis, Tennessee, droves of residents sued the local streetcar company for physical and emotional injuries. Black Memphians were at the fore of this litigation—and their suits were overwhelmingly successful.

In this paper, I examine the rise of personal injury suits in Memphis, and explain the success of Black litigants—in the face of entrenched racial segregation, and a legal system controlled by white southern racists. I also explore the question posed by this paper’s heading: by bringing these civil suits, were Black litigants suing for their citizenship?

Dr Hollie Pich is an early career researcher, and Research Affiliate at the University of Sydney. She is a historian of race, gender, and the law in the twentieth-century American South.

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The Department of History hosts a lively departmental research seminar series. Everyone is welcome to attend.

When
12:10-1:30pm Wednesday 19 May 2021

Where
On Zoom

Click here to register for the History seminar series email list

The Department of History is part of the School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry (SOPHI)

Image: courtesy of the New York Public Library

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Date

May 19 2021
Expired!

Time

12:10 pm - 1:30 pm

Location

Online
Category

Organizer

History
Website
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/history

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