On March 25, 1867, Caroline Le Count, a 21-year-old African American schoolteacher and civil rights activist, stepped onto the streets of Philadelphia with a mission. Just three days earlier, Pennsylvania Governor John W. Geary had signed a groundbreaking law prohibiting racial discrimination on the city’s horse-drawn streetcars, a victory hard-won by activists like Le Count and her fiancé, Octavius V. Catto. On that Monday morning, at the corner of Eleventh and Lombard Streets, Le Count set out to test whether this new law would hold in the face of entrenched prejudice. Her actions that day would mark a pivotal moment in the fight for equal access to public transportation, earning her comparisons to Rosa Parks nearly a century later.
Philadelphia in the 1860s was a city of contradictions. Known as the “City of Brotherly Love” and a hub of abolitionist activity, it was also a place where racial discrimination permeated daily life. Since horse-drawn streetcars began operating in 1858, African Americans were systematically excluded from riding alongside white passengers. Of the city’s 19 streetcar companies, 11 outright banned Black riders, while others forced them to stand on the front platform with the driver, regardless of weather or available seats. For Black women like Le Count, who worked tirelessly to deliver supplies and medical care to African American Union soldiers during the Civil War, this segregation posed significant barriers to mobility and safety.
Le Count, born in 1846 to a family likely involved in the Underground Railroad, was no stranger to resistance. A graduate of the Institute for Colored Youth (later Cheyney University), she had excelled academically, outscoring her peers and becoming the first Black woman in Philadelphia to pass the teaching examination. By 1867, she was a teacher at the Ohio Street School and a prominent figure in the city’s Black community, known for her intellect, eloquence, and fierce commitment to justice. Alongside Catto, a charismatic educator and leader in the Pennsylvania Equal Rights League, Le Count had been part of a years-long campaign to desegregate the streetcars, employing civil disobedience tactics that included boarding segregated cars despite the risk of violent ejection.
The passage of the March 22, 1867, law was a triumph for activists. Spearheaded by Catto and supported by petitions, protests, and lobbying efforts in Harrisburg, the legislation explicitly banned streetcar companies from denying service or segregating passengers based on race. Violators faced fines or imprisonment. Yet, laws alone do not change hearts or habits, and Le Count knew enforcement would be the true test. On March 25, she and an assistant approached a streetcar on the Tenth and Eleventh Street Railway line, determined to see if the law would be upheld.
As Le Count attempted to board, the conductor refused her entry, hurling a racial slur and declaring that Black passengers were not allowed. Undeterred, Le Count was prepared. She carried a copy of the new law and promptly reported the incident to a nearby police officer. When the officer claimed ignorance of the statute, Le Count presented the document, forcing action. The conductor was arrested and fined $100—a significant penalty that sent a clear message to streetcar companies: segregation was no longer permissible.
Le Count’s stand on March 25 was not an isolated act but part of a coordinated effort by Black women and men to challenge systemic racism. Her persistence, alongside the work of activists like Catto, William Still, and others, ensured that Philadelphia’s streetcars became one of the first public institutions in the post-Civil War era to integrate. This victory rippled beyond transportation, redefining civil rights to include equal access to public spaces and setting a precedent for future struggles.
Tragically, Le Count’s personal life was marked by loss. Catto, her fiancé, was murdered in 1871 during Election Day violence aimed at suppressing Black voters. Le Count never married, but she continued her activism and educational work, becoming the second Black woman to serve as a principal in Philadelphia’s public schools. She renamed her school the Octavius V. Catto School in his honor and advocated for Black educators and students until she died in 1923.
Caroline Le Count’s actions on that spring day in 1867 resonate today. Often called “Philadelphia’s Rosa Parks,” she embodied the courage and strategy of civil disobedience that would define later civil rights movements. In recent years, her legacy has been rediscovered, with efforts to honor her including a 2023 headstone dedication at Eden Cemetery and the 2024 renaming of Philadelphia’s Taney Street to LeCount Street, replacing the name of the Supreme Court justice who authored the Dred Scott decision.
Le Count’s story is a testament to the power of individual action within a collective struggle. On March 25, 1867, she did more than board a streetcar—she challenged a city to live up to its ideals, paving the way for a more just future. Her legacy reminds us that progress is not inevitable but won through the bravery of those who refuse to accept injustice.