Steamer ‘Sue’ arriving in Baltimore

Description

The steamer "Sue" arriving at its home port of Baltimore, Maryland. Built in Wilmington, Delaware in 1867, the Sue traversed the waters between Baltimore and Virginia. In 1884, a lawsuit was filed against the steamer's owners, the Baltimore, Chesapeake and Richmond Steamboat Company, after a group of Black Baltimoreans purchased first-class tickets for the Sue and were denied accommodations in the first-class cabin based on their color. In 1885 the U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. While separation by race and color was allowable under the "separate but equal" doctrine, Judge Thomas J. Morris found that the accommodations in this case were not comparable.