{"id":560,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:48:36","latitude":38.27568800000000237560016103088855743408203125,"longitude":-85.74051900000000614454620517790317535400390625,"title":"Obediah Buckner","subtitle":"Early Jeffersonville Civil Rights Case","fullsize":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/3ccc58a77dada20eeb73d8fd839ed58f.jpg","address":"38.275688,-85.740519","all_locations":[],"zoom":8,"creator":["Diane Stepro"],"description":"The Jeffersonville Township Public Library occupies the space that was once Jeffersonville’s train railroad switch yard. In 1854, Obediah Buckner visited the ticket office of the Jeffersonville Railroad, once located near here, expecting to purchase a ticket and ride the trains from Jeffersonville to Henryville, Indiana. At the time, railroads were the most swift and practical way to travel any place not accessible by a navigable river. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nIlliterate according to the 1860 U.S. Census, Buckner couldn’t have known that he was among the earliest Black Americans to protest transportation discrimination. In theory, Blacks in Indiana lived in freedom by the time Buckner settled in Clark County. From territorials days on, Indiana banned slavery but discrimination thrived. With Jeffersonville’s proximity to Louisville’s slave markets, freedom was tenuous at best. <br />\r\n<br />\r\nBorn in Kentucky around 1808, based on the 1860 U.S. Census, Buckner farmed in Henryville with his wife Rebecca, who was born in Virginia. They were modestly successful and had at least four children, but indicated that they could not read or write. Three sons lived at home with them in that census year. They would have been small children at the time of Buckner’s 1854 conflict. The Buckners appear in Kentucky in the 1840 U.S. Census, living as a free Black couple with one child. They may have returned to Kentucky after the Civil War. Little else is known of the Buckners.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nOn that fateful morning, agents of the Jeffersonville Railroad informed Buckner that since they didn’t know him, they wouldn’t sell him a railway ticket unless he could prove that he wasn’t an escaped slave. Unprepared to do so, Buckner missed the morning train. We don’t know why he was returning to Henryville that morning, but he calculated the expenses he incurred from his delayed journey at $20. He filed a complaint against the Jeffersonville Railroad, requesting reimbursement.<br />\r\n<br />\r\nWhile Jeffersonville Railroad admitted to the facts in the case, and even admitted that they had never published a rule requiring freedom papers from black passengers, Clark Circuit Court found for the railroad. This left Buckner and other free people of color to contend with inconsistent, discriminatory rules regarding rail transportation at a time when most relied on trains for travel.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"","website":"","related_resources":[],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/3ccc58a77dada20eeb73d8fd839ed58f.jpg":{"id":2633,"mime-type":"image/png","title":"Jeffersonville Library","description":"Beneath the parking lot of the mid century modern building, railroad lines still sit in their beds. In the 19th century, this neighborhood was a center of industry, and trains carried supplies and workers to the expanding city of Jeffersonville. Jeffersonville Railroad Company ticket office stood near this site at one time. | Jeffersonville Township Public Library | 2020 | Diane Stepro","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/3ccc58a77dada20eeb73d8fd839ed58f.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/e250b8db1c7a72a39904017ac8f5371a.jpg":{"id":3016,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Ticket Office","description":"With its proximity to the Ohio River, transportation loomed large in Jeffersonville’s history. Many free Black men worked on the river or the trains. This map shows the train lines as they were approximately 50 years after the Buckner case. The passenger depot is just west of the current Jeffersonville Township Public Library, at the corner of Wall Street and East Court Avenue. | Image courtesy of the Indiana University Maps Collection | 1898","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/e250b8db1c7a72a39904017ac8f5371a.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/0db96b725dc0914c6bb8bc888540b35e.jpg":{"id":2635,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Bridge","description":"The railroad from Jeffersonville to Henryville carried passengers across Silver Creek, a tributary of the Ohio River. On his delayed trip, Buckner would have crossed this railroad bridge similar to this Clark County structure. | Jeffersonville Township Public Library","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/0db96b725dc0914c6bb8bc888540b35e.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/59aa8ac8be5fd0c798403ca61c887e64.jpg":{"id":3015,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Studio Photo","description":"Thomas Ware Gibson, a lawyer practicing in both Kentucky and Indiana, represented the Jeffersonville Railroad. At the time when he practiced law in Clark County, Indiana, Gibson had the community’s respect. However, in his youth, he had shown a proclivity for thrill-seeking behaviors, including intentionally burning down a building at West Point. West Point authorities expelled Gibson shortly after Gibson’s roommate, Edgar Allan Poe, left the school to pursue a career as a writer. | Courtesy of Gibson descendent Roger Goodspeed","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/59aa8ac8be5fd0c798403ca61c887e64.jpg"},"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/fullsize/700126a78426ef5fc925e6c7436464ab.jpg":{"id":2637,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Station","description":"The station and ticket office in Jeffersonville must have been very similar to this station at nearby New Albany, but no known photos of the Jeffersonville station survive.  | Jeffersonville Township Public Library","thumbnail":"https://discoverindianahistory.org/files/square_thumbnails/700126a78426ef5fc925e6c7436464ab.jpg"}}}