Robert E Lee's daughter Mary Custis Lee took a stand against segregated seating in Virginia in 1902

Mary Lee sAt in the "colored" section of a Virginia streetcar.Photo byWikipedia

Mary Custis Lee takes a stand

Long before 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama there was Mary Custis Lee. The daughter of Confederate General Robert E Lee, took a similar stand in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1902 although her motives were not clear.

Ms. Lee was born in Arlington, Virginia, on the property where the Arlington Cemetery now resides. On that historic day in 1902, Mary sat beside her black maid on a streetcar in the area designated for people of color. When she refused to move to the whites-only section she was arrested.

What were her motives?

Mary's actions have been used to champion integration but looking at her image, Ms. Custis Lee seems to have been the type with the attitude: "Don't start no stuff, won't be no stuff." Her decision that day probably had more to do with getting her own way than making a statement for justice.

Still, the daughter of Robert E. Lee, who fought for the Confederacy, sitting in the colored section next to her Black maid, probably caused quite a stir. After the streetcar incident, Mary Custis Lee moved to France, where she lived until the outbreak of World War I.