Nineteenth Century Rosa Parks? Assessing Elizabeth Jennings\u27 Legacy as a Teacher and Civil Rights Pioneer in Antebellum America

Elizabeth Jennings should be recognized as more than a Rosa Parks figure in Antebellum New York City history. Both Jennings\u27 and Parks\u27 experiences with segregation on public transportation are similar, but they are not the same. Jennings\u27 ejection from a New York streetcar was not deliberately planned, nor did her removal from the streetcar lead to mass protests or boycotts in New York City or throughout the country. Similarly though, as many African Americans endured violence during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Elizabeth Jennings also survived the New York City Draft Riots in 1863. Overall, both women deserve their own respective place in United States history because they were emblematic of the socio-political issues of their time - Jennings in the Antebellum Era and Parks in the post-World War II civil rights movement