Kate Brown

Catharine Brown (c. 1840 – 1883) was an employee of the United States Senate and the plaintiff in Railroad Company v. Brown, a case decided by the United States Supreme Court. A white security guard violently ejected this African American woman from an illegally segregated railroad car in Alexandria, Virginia, on February 8, 1868.

Early life and career Little is known about Catharine Brown's early life. She was born into freedom in Virginia in the 1830s and grew up in Alexandria, the daughter of Sarah Ann Piper Brown, a free woman of color. She moved from Alexandria to Washington, D.C., sometime after 1853. In 1860, she was working as a live-in domestic servant in the Washington home of civil engineer Edmund French. In 1861, she moved into the house of new husband, Jacob Dodson, a US Senate restroom attendant and former aide to Thomas Hart Benton and John C. Frémont. By the end of 1861, likely at the intercession of her well-connected husband, the US Senate sergeant-at-arms hired her to take charge of the ladies' retiring room, keeping it clean and looking after its patrons. Brown earned wages of $1 a day, 30 days a month. Laundering the Senate's towels and curtains netted her an additional $20-$30 a month. At the time, landing a federal job required connections to influential white officials, and holding such jobs put Jacob and Kate Dodson firmly in the Black middle class. However, Jacob developed a severe drinking problem, lost his job, and allegedly became adulterous and abusive toward his wife. Kate divorced him in October 1867 and legally resumed her maiden name.

Racist incident During the afternoon of February 8, 1868, Brown boarded a train in Alexandria, Virginia, traveling home to Washington, D.C. She had been visiting a sick relative in Alexandria and had traveled outbound on the ladies' railroad car without incident, as the railroad did not attempt to segregate the passengers by race on trains leaving Washington. She had purchased a round-trip ticket in Washington. Both segments of her trip took place on lines managed by the Washington, Alexandria, and Georgetown Railroad Company.

Brown's injuries were so serious that she was bedridden for several weeks. She received severe contusions on her torso and limbs, a sprained shoulder and elbow, a black eye, and hemorrhages in her lungs that caused her to spit up blood. A physician, Dr. Alexander Thomas Augusta, who had been a commissioned officer during the Civil War, had to be summoned to minister to her injuries.

Legal consequences Brown's brutal treatment stirred outrage, especially among the Radical Republicans who controlled Congress at the time. "A dastardly outrage was perpetrated in Alexandria on Saturday afternoon," declared one newspaper, "which is justly considered a disgrace to this age of civilization." The railway company appealed the verdict, and the case went before the Supreme Court of the United States. On November 17, 1873, in an opinion delivered by Justice David Davis, the Court held that racial segregation on the Washington-Alexandria railroad line was prohibited under the company's congressional charter, which stated that "no person shall be excluded from the cars on account of race." This stipulation had been incorporated into the charter at the behest of Senator Charles Sumner.

The Court held that white and Black passengers must be treated equally in the use of the railroad's cars:

Later life and career Brown recovered from her injuries and remained a Senate employee until 1880. At the behest of Senator Sumner, from 1874 to 1879 Congress included a separate line in the annual federal appropriations bill to cover her wages of $720 each year. However, in August 1880, Brown was dismissed from her job by the Democrats, who had gained control of the Senate in 1879. When she died in 1883 in Washington, her estate was worth $4,000, making her better off financially than the vast majority of African Americans at the time.

Legacy The Congressional Black Associates, which supports Congressional staff, named one of its Trailblazer Awards in Brown's honor.