Today,1867, in Richmond, Virginia, African American Christopher Jones was arrested. His crime? Trying to board a whites only horse drawn carriage.
Jones' struggle is important not only because he fought the good fight but also because it sheds light on a much ignored history of the early fight for public transportation in the segregated South.
No, the struggle did not begin and happily end when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in 1955. The truth is much messier and older, and it is far different than the sanitized story depicted in most of our history books.
"trying to board a whites only horse drawn carriage." 😆😂...in retrospect, this reads funny as hell, trying to integrate a horse drawn carriage! The shit Black Americans had to go through to live a normal life - the right to assert their dignity & humanity.
"The truth is much messier and older, and is far different than the sanitized story depicted in most of our history books." Amen...and TODAY, with the Trumpkkk administration, even that sanitized version is either being doubly-sanitized or erased altogether!
But damn, I couldn't even find a Wikipedia entry for this Christopher Jones, unless I keep missing it😞