Sharon E. Wood
On September 4, 1872, a young teacher named Emma Koger boarded the Keokuk steamship SS Merrill. She asked to buy a private walkway to Quincy, Illinois, but her clerk refused and offered her a second-class car ticket instructed to eat on the outdoor deck or pantry. Koger refused the ticket.
“I said,’Sir, I’m not a servant, and I don’t eat with the guards or the grocery store with my servant.'”
After repeated efforts to buy first class tickets, Koger looked for a “gentleman” on the deck. “I said,’Sir, do you want me?'” He said, “Sure, miss.” Koger gave him her money and he bought a ticket.
At dinner, Koger was seated at the women’s table, not the pantry. The captain’s wife shouted, “Why is that Negro?” And Koger replied, “If I’m Negro, Madame, I’m as white as you.”
What happened next led Emma Coger to file a proceeding that echoes Iowa law today. She was ordered to leave, Koger refused. When her two crew twisted her, she grabbed her tablecloth and her plate and supper crashed into her floor. Coger marched towards her door, wrestling with her captain and smearing her nose.
Koger has filed a proceeding in Keokuk as well as in the Iowa Supreme Court. “The principle of equality is announced and ensured by the first words of the State Constitution,” wrote Chief Justice Joseph Beck … “Everyone is essentially free and equal.” ..
In the 1890s, Homer Plessy and Daniel Dedunes filed an anti-separation proceeding in Louisiana as part of a systematic political effort. Twenty years ago, in 1872, Emma Coger did the same. She harmed her body as part of her organized political action.
Recognizing that the end of slavery was not the end of fraud, an African-American man in Illinois convened a convention in 1866. They pursued equal rights “both in the ballot box and in court.” In other words, they called for a proceeding – especially because they didn’t have access to the ballot box at the time. Koger’s brother-in-law helped draft the convention’s eloquent demand for “before the standards of American law … equality.”
Koger also received support from Prince Hall Mason, an organization dedicated to civil rights activities. All four successful Iowa civil rights proceedings between 1867 and 1875 were part of a campaign pushed by Prince Hall Mason. The regional Grand Lodge may have met in Kiokaku shortly before Koger boarded Merrill and planned a proceeding at that meeting.
When she got home to Quincy, she hired Kiokaku’s most prominent lawyer, Daniel F. Miller. Only by utilizing her political network and their funds could a 20-year-old school teacher hire such strong and compassionate legal support in another state. She was not the first woman to sue a general carrier for racism, but her proceedings were unusual in that they were planned in collaboration with organized men.
Koger’s legal heritage extended far beyond her own life. Brown v. Board of Education lawyers quoted her case. In Iowa, Koger vs. Northwestern Union Packet Company continues to be the foundation for civil rights. Varnumv protects same-sex marriage. Quoted in Brien (2009). Gartnerv. Iowa Dept. In Public Health (2013), married lesbian couples have guaranteed the right to include their parents’ names on their birth certificate. And in a planned parent-child relationship between Heartland and Reynolds (2018), which claimed that the 72-hour waiting period for women seeking abortion violated the State Constitution.
In claiming freedom of travel, Emma Koger set out on a path to a final destination she never imagined.
Sharon E. Wood is a professor of history at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
March is Iowa History Month
To celebrate Iowa History Month, the register publishes weekly essays from major state historians.
