Document 2: Interstate Commerce Commission Order




Click the image to view a larger version

Citation: Docket 21, Formal Dockets of the ICC, Records of the Interstate Commerce Commission, RG 134.

Questions for Students

1. Review the report of the ICC to ascertain these facts: a. Who is the defendant? b. Who is the complainant? c. Who heard the case? When? d. When was the final decision on this case issued?

2. What was the outcome of the case?

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the concept of separate but equal. Consider in your discussion the question of inherent inequality.

2. This case was heard before the ICC nine years before Plessy v. Ferguson. Discuss the development of precedents and their role in lawmaking.

Vocabulary: petition, complaint, cease and desist.

Note: When he was denied a seat in a first-class railroad car after paying first-class fare, William H. Councill, principal of the State Colored Normal and Industrial School in Huntsville, Alabama, filed a complaint with the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) against the Western and Atlantic Railroad Company. The ICC, created in 1887, the same year in which this case was filed, was charged with protecting the public in matters relating to transportation and commerce between States. Councill alleged that by his removal to the Jim Crow car he was subjected to "unreasonable prejudice and unjust discrimination." He sought from the ICC $25,000 in damages and $1,500 in legal costs.