Kate Brown: U.S. Senate and Supreme Court Case
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(The following is the testimony of Kate (Catharine) Brown, given to the U.S. Senate Committee on the District of Columbia, in February of 1868. The questions were taken from her beside and posed by Senator Harlan, chairman of that committee).
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On Saturday, the 8th of February, I went to the Washington depot at 1 o’clock, waited until two, and purchased a ticket to go and return; I left the office and started to go to the car; on the platform there was a man who said, “Take the rear car.” I made no reply, but went in and took my seat in what they call the white people’s car; the cars left here at 2 o’clock, and I was about to return in the 3 o’clock train from Alexandria; on entering the car there the policeman hailed me, and holloed to me to go in the forward car; I replied, “This car will do.” With that I entered the car and got inside of the door, when the policeman ran up and told me I could not ride in that car. I told him I came down in that car, and in that car I intended to return; that I had my ticket, a return ticket, which I had bought in Washington, and I was going back in the same car; he said I could not go; I asked him why, as I had paid my fare and had come down in the same car; he said that car was for ladies; I told him then that was the very car I wanted to go in, and I had come down in it. He said “no damned nigger was allowed to ride in that car anyhow; never was and never would be.” With that he seized me and tried to eject me; I had got inside of the door and was holding on to the door with my left arm, with my right hand holding on to the bars, and then I had my left foot in the seat.
He said, “Ain’t you coming out of this car?”
Said I, “Never; I bought my ticket to go to Washington in this car, and I am going in it; before I leave this car I will suffer death.”
He had on his badge, “Special policeman of the Washington, Georgetown and Alexandria railroad,” and he said he had been instructed by the company to eject any “nigger” that entered that car.
Q. Instructed by whom?
A. The company. He had been instructed “not to let any nigger go in that car; that car was for ladies;” and then he again took hold of me. I told him to let me go; I had come respectably from Washington and was on my return, as I had business to do at the Capitol. I expected to return at 3 o’clock and have time enough to arrange my room in the building, as it was not known that I was absent. He then went behind me and wrung my hands on the iron. He doubled up his fist and struck me all across the knuckles. I had such a clinch that he could not get my hands off. He battered my knuckles, and got my left arm twisted all the way around in trying to get it off the door. I was determined not to leave the car, because I had paid my fare, and the other car was all filthy and dirty, containing nobody but men.
He twisted my arm until he hit my shoulder so that I had to let go with the left hand. After letting go that, I caught with my other hand the iron railings.
He went around and unclenched my fingers, and then struck me in the back. I took hold of the door again with both hands. Then he said if I did not go out he would beat me so that I would not be able to stand. I told him he might do it; I would not go out; I had made up my mind not to leave the car, unless they brought me off dead.
Then, after releasing my hands, he got in from of me and took me by the collar of my coat, which I had buttoned, and dragged me and tried to jerk me out. I tried to make him let go me my holding around the railings, and he then beat the part of my hand that had hold of the railings. I had such a terrible wrestle with him for about six minutes that he stepped out on the platform and said, “Sheriff,” (there was a tall man there with light clothes on,) “I demand you, as an officer of this railroad company, to arrest the woman.”
Then this other man came up. I was so exhausted I could scarcely talk; I commenced to cry, the officer had hurt me so bad, and my arms and limbs were paining me so.
Said I, “Are you the sheriff?”
Said he, “Yes.”
Said I, “What are you going to arrest me for? What have I done? Have I committed robbery? Have I murdered anybody?”
He said that niggers were not allowed to ride in those cars; it was the rules of the company, and he was bound to enforce them. This was the would-be sheriff. I have heard since that he was no sheriff.
With that he took hold of me right here (around the neck,) and tried to drag me out, and they both then succeeded in getting me out on the platform. At length this policeman, who stood behind me, kicked me on the foot, and the man who was in front of me was pulling me while the other was pushing me off, but I still held on to the iron railings. Then one of these men went around the iron railing and took hold of my arms, and my dress and coat and pulled me, and the both of them succeeded in dragging me down the platform one step, and then two steps, and then on to the bricks.
They dragged me a little distance and injured my hip. There were two or three of his associates, I suppose, standing around who looked at each other and grimaced and had a time. I then looked up and saw a gentleman; I do not know his name, but I know he is a clerk to Mr. Fessenden’s Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds. He stepped up and asked me what was the matter. He had seen part of this occurrence.
I told him I was afraid to go to Washington in that car because there were disorderly persons in them, and that man had threatened my life, and I was afraid to move. He said he would go with me in a car and see that nobody injured me, and I then went in a car with him.
The man that put me off said particularly that it was the orders of the company, and he was going to enforce them if it cost him his life. Those two men abused me in that way, I suppose, eleven minutes altogether. I have been told there were three of them, but I only remember two. I was very much prostate after it.
Q. Were you seriously injured by these men in getting off?
A. I had a hemorrhage that I shall never get over, and have had two hemorrhages since, and my whole body from head down to my toes has been very sore, especially my breast and my hip, that I could not cough without great pain. I cannot put my foot to the ground to walk; it almost takes my breath. Then my wrist was very much injured; I thought it was broken, by being twisted off the iron railing, so as to turn my whole arm around.
Q. Where were hemorrhages, of which you speak, located?
A. I do not know.
Q. The lungs?
A. I think so. I have spit blood several times since, and it has left me very prostrate. My breast has been very sore ever since. My nose and my eyes were dreadful. This man struck me in the left eye, and my eye gathered, and I had to have eye water applied every day. My eyes are now well. The left eye was black all the way around and swollen to the top. I had to have a poultice on my eye for four nights in succession.
Q. You speak of your hip having been injured. How did that occur?
A. From the dragging—two men dragging me from the car. They twisted my feet; they did everything to me that they could do. I declare they could not have treated a dog worse than they tried to treat me. It was nothing but “damned nigger,” and cursing and swearing all the time.
Q. You speak of their having kicked you. What part of your person did they kick?
A. One of these fellows was dragging me by the collar, while the other one stood on the platform kicking me off. He took his knee so as to try to get my hand away from the iron railing—kicked me on the foot.
Q. State whether you have been confined to your room and bed, or either, during the period which has intervened; and if so, during what period of time.
A. I have been in this bed on my back since the 8th day of February. I came home on that day, and my sister undressed me and put me to bed; the doctor dressed my arm; and I have been here ever since; a part of the time not able to hold up my head. My sister has been up with me night after night. These men pushed me against the door and against the platform, and I feel very sore, especially in my back and hip.
Q. State what part of the time you have been under the doctor’s charge.
Dr. Alexander T. Augusta was the first Black administrator of a hospital in the nation and an army surgeon. He attended to Kate Brown’s injuries.
National Library of Medicine
A. Every day and twice a day until a day or two. He is watching the hemorrhage.
Q. State whether he has been administering medicine internally.
A. I have take any quantity of medicine. I have taken two bottles of different moistures and two or three different kinds of things, powders, pills, and liniments. I have had two bottles of different kinds of liniments, one for my arm and one for my body.
Q. State the doctor’s name and where he resides.
A. Dr. Augusta. He resides on Fourteenth street between L and M, on the east side; the number I do not know.
Q. Has the company, or any person professing to be an officer of the company, offered you any reparation?
A. Yes, sir; but not directly. My brother-in-law is very well acquainted with Mr. Stewart, who I believe is secretary of the company,
Q. Has any other person professing to be connected with the road offered you any reparation?
A. No, sir.
Q. Do you know whether this man who ejected you from the car remained on the train on its way up or not?
A. I do not.
Q. Did you see the conductor of the train during this time?
A. Yes, sir. He was on the spot—a witness to the transaction.
Q. Did he do or say anything?
A. Not to me; but he has to others. I can bring three or four that he has ejected or tried to eject from the cars.
Q. Do you know the conductor’s name?
A. I have got it down; I think it is Mitchell.
Q. Do you know the name of the policeman who ejected you from the car?
A. Yes, sir; but I cannot think of it at present. I noticed his badge particularly and read the inscription upon it.
Q. Has the company, or any person purporting to be an officer of the company, paid you anything?
A. Not at all. I am under heavy expense, keeping two rooms, and not making anything. I shall have to get up to my work as soon as possible, if I have to go on crutches.
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Kate Brown was an employee at the United States Capitol in 1868. She was responsible for managing the ladies’ retiring-room of the U.S. Senate. This event happened to her on February 8, 1868 and, given her employment at the U.S. Capitol, many senators knew of it and were upset over her hurt.
There are so many people who we don’t know…who paved the way for equal treatment in this country—we should remember their names.
The Senate authorized an investigation into what happened to Catharine Brown, and while it did not produce any action against the company, Catharine Brown did sue the railroad company in court. She won an award of $1,500, but the company appealed the decision to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mrs. Brown and the lower court’s decision was upheld, some five and a half years later.
NOTE: The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Catharine Brown because the original legislation that governed the railroad had the directive that passengers could not be excluded from cars on account of their race.
Supreme Court excerpt:
In the year 1854, Congress authorized the Alexandria and Washington Railroad Company,* a company which had been incorporated by the State of Virginia, and whose road began at Alexandria, a town seven miles south of Washington, and ran northward to the south side of the Potomac, to extend their road into the District of Columbia, in a way designated.
The act of incorporation provided that in case of suit against the company " the' service of process . . . may be made on .. . any director of the company."
In 1863, the company got a further grant of power, authorizing it to extend its road northward, so as to connect itself with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This grant was, however, accompanied with a provision, "that no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of color.”
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References:
Chase, S. P. & Supreme Court Of The United States. (1873) U.S. Reports: Railroad Company v. Brown, 84 U.S. 17 Wall. 445. [Periodical] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/usrep084445/
The Senate of the United States. From the Committee on the District of Columbia, Report Submitted. Printed June 17, 1868. 40th Congress, 2d session. Retrieved from Senate.gov, https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/KateBrownReport.pdf
United States Senate. The Kate Brown Story. Retrieved September 4, 2020. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Kate_Brown_Story.htm