Content warning: This piece includes an account of an apparent suicide.
Almost 50 years before Rosa Parks defied segregation laws on an Alabama bus, another civil rights activist, Barbara Pope, refused to leave the “whites only” compartment of a passenger train, sued the railroad, and won. Her bold act had a ripple effect on the Civil Rights Movement, changing the strategy of activists working to undo Jim Crow-era segregation in the 20th century.
In the fight for justice, Pope is just one of the unsung heroes who stared down discrimination, despite the consequences on her life, family, and happiness. Yet despite her contributions to racial justice, Pope’s sudden death all but erased her legacy in history. Here’s her story.
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A family rooted in resistance
Barbara Pope’s defiant stand against segregation was shaped by a deep-rooted legacy of activism in her family. Her grandmother, Barbara Cole Williams, was enslaved on the Georgetown estate of Tudor Place, a mansion owned by Martha Custis Peter, a granddaughter of Martha Washington.
Williams frequently tested the limits of her bondage by secretly attending dances in Georgetown. When caught, the Peters punished her by sending her to their rural Maryland plantation. But this never stopped Williams from dancing, and at the end of her punishment, the Peters always brought her back to Tudor Place.
In 1829, Williams gave birth to twin girls. One died as an infant and the other was Pope’s mother, Hannah. Family accounts and DNA evidence support that the twins’ biological father was a Peter family male, likely one of Martha Peter’s sons. But family connection and the fact that Hannah Pope was technically related to Martha Washington did not affect her status. She remained enslaved at Tudor Place until the Peter family sold her to a neighbor, Colonel John Carter, in 1845.
At the Carter’s residence, Hannah Cole met her future husband and Barbara Pope’s father, Alfred Pope. While Barbara Pope’s maternal side of the family had a defiant streak, her father was even more bold in his resistance. In 1848, he and approximately 76 enslaved men, women, and children boarded a ship named The Pearl with the intent of sailing from D.C. to a free state in the North. They traveled for three days until their enslavers noticed their absence and captured the ship at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. This escape attempt failed, but Alfred Pope did not have to wait long for his freedom. Just two years later, Colonel Carter died and freed the rebellious Pope family in his will.
“Miss Pope has a mind of her own”
Born the fifth of 10 children in 1858, Pope came of age during a crucial time for Black people in America. After the Civil War ended in 1865, recently freed persons flocked to Washington, D.C. for work and educational opportunities. Alfred Pope served as an early trustee for the Colored Schools of Washington and Georgetown, which established segregated public schools and curriculums for formerly enslaved Black students.
