Description
“Pamunkey Indians Angry” is the headline of this short article published in the July 30, 1900, edition of Norfolk’s <e>Public Ledger </em>. The author, in a joking, dismissive tone, reports that members of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe were “howling mad” in response to “the new ‘Jim Crow’ car law, which places them on a footing with negroes.” The Pamunkeys were protesting a law passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 1900 which required railroad companies to “furnish separate coaches for the transportation of white and colored passengers.” The author of the article—who is clearly writing in defense of the discriminatory law—frames the protest in terms of a fight between two non-white groups, rather than a protest against an infringement of rights.
