Streetcar Justice: The Struggle for Spatial Belonging on San Francisco Streetcars, 1863–1868

Abstract This article analyzes the 1860s lawsuits against streetcar corporations in San Francisco by Black people who had been denied passage and physically removed from streetcars. By focusing on 1860s San Francisco, the article uses methods of transit, spatial, and legal history to analyze not only a distinct historical moment when streetcar corporations became vehicles for citizenship rights for Black people, but also a moment when the same lawsuits facilitated a struggle for spatial mobility and belonging across the city. As the Civil War raged, Black San Franciscans, working with White lawyers, highlighted the streetcar’s legal status as a “common carrier” that was supposed to be accessible to anyone seeking a ride. Verdicts from the lawsuits improved accessibility for Black passengers. An emerging order of White supremacy could be attacked in state court and weakened, in part because San Francisco did not have a clear racial order, and in part because the city’s multi-racial, multi-national, and cross-class politics created space for lawsuits.