NORTH WESTERN UNION PACKET COMPANY

NORTH WESTERN UNION PACKET COMPANY. Captain W. F. Davidson, an experienced captain on the MISSISSIPPI RIVER entered into competition with other packet companies in the 1850s. In the early 1860s, his fleet was purchased by the NORTH WESTERN PACKET COMPANY. This particular steamboat company is best remembered for the civil rights case in which it was involved. In 1873, the court heard Coger v. The North Western Union Packet Co. (1)

The case centered on a woman who, because of her African descent, was forcibly removed from the dining car of the steamboat on which she was traveling. The woman had an unrestricted meal ticket. Emma Coger, the plaintiff in Coger v. Northwestern Union Packet Company (1873), was a young schoolteacher physically resisted steamboat officers when they refused to treat her as a lady because of her color. Emma was not the first woman of African descent to sue a common carrier over race discrimination in the United States, but her suit was unusual for being planned in cooperation with organized men. (2)

In the 1870s, when she led her challenge to the discrimination practiced by a steamboat company, she did so with the support both African American crew members as well as with that of the Prince Hall Masons, a US organization deeply engaged in civil rights work. Her case went all the way to the Iowa Supreme Court and is still cited in legal decisions. The Iowa Supreme Court held that the woman was entitled to the same rights and privileges as white passengers. (3)

---

Source:

1. "The Upper Mississippi Navigation," Dubuque Herald, May 3, 1866, p. 1

2. Emma Lane Coger, Nineteenth-Century Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri (US). Cambridge University Press, Online: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/as-if-she-were-free/emma-lane-coger-nineteenthcentury-illinois-iowa-and-missouri-us/A0FED0526CEDDDB93352FC243DCFD0F9

2. "Supreme Court of Iowa. Emma Coger v. North Western Union Packet Company," The American Law Register (1852-1891) Vol. 22, No. 3, New Series Volume 13 (Mar., 1874), pp. 162-174 Online: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3303647?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents