Navigating the Rails

Suggested Teaching Instructions

This activity can be used as a transition to bridge the Reconstruction Era to the Jim Crow Era and/or the changing role of women shortly before and at the turn of the twentieth century.  For grades 9-12.  Approximate time needed is 45 minutes.  

This activity aims to teach students about the complicated intersection of race and gender during the Reconstruction period in United States history when both were being renegotiated. During the earlier years of Reconstruction, many African American women--especially those in the middle- and upper-classes received privileged treatment compared to their male counterparts because of their gender (e.g., black women being allowed into the ladies' car to shelter them from the crudeness of men on the other cars).

However, in this court case, the brakeman's refusal to allow Lola Houck into the ladies' car because of her race prevented her from living up to society's standard of a respectable woman. Although the brakeman was eventually found guilty, it was on the grounds of him mistreating a woman and not honoring her train ticket, and not because he violated her civil rights as an African American (despite the fact that you can see in the testimony his harassment is racially-inspired).

After your students finish the activity, conduct a class discussion to help students understand the importance of what can be learned from Houck’s experience while also foreshadowing the treatment that would follow for African American women in the Jim Crow Era.

The below questions are good points of departure for the discussion. (These are available to students in the “When You’re Done" section of the activity.)

• Based on Houck’s testimony, how would you describe "proper" womanhood during this time period?
• How did Houck’s race complicate her ability to fulfill society’s standards of appropriate femininity? 
• With Reconstruction incomplete and federal troops withdrawn from the South, were more incidents like this bound to increase?
• Would courts be more willing to segregate public facilities in the future?