Virginia Department of Historic Resources
(dhr.virginia.gov)
For Immediate Release
September 2025
Contact:
Ivy Tan
Department of Historic Resources
Marketing & Communications Manager
ivy.tan@dhr.virginia.gov
804-482-6445
—The court case helped lead to the establishment of the Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, a forerunner of the NAACP—
—Text of marker reproduced below—
PLEASE NOTE: DHR creates markers not to “honor” their subjects but rather to educate and inform the public about a person, place, or event of regional, state, or national importance. In this regard, erected markers are not memorials.
RICHMOND – The Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) announced that a state historical marker approved by the Virginia Board of Historic Resources was dedicated October 4, 2025, highlighting the events that led to The Stewart Sisters v. The Steamer Sue, a 19th-century court case that became an impetus for the establishment of the Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, a forerunner of the NAACP.
The dedication for the marker was held Saturday, October 4, at New Jerusalem Baptist Church. The marker unveiling took place at the marker’s location on Route 202, a few yards east of 13890 Cople Highway in Kinsale. The event was free and open to the public.
The dedication ceremony began with an invocation led by Bishop Gerald Smith, the pastor at New Jerusalem Baptist Church, followed by a statement of occasion from Dallas G. Henderson, a descendant of the Stewart sisters. The following attendees also spoke at the dedication: the Rev. Darryl Fisher, chair of the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors; Dennis Patrick Halpin, Ph.D., an associate professor of history at Virginia Tech; the Rev. Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway, Sr., pastor emeritus at Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland; DHR’s Division Director of Community Services Amanda Terrell; Bessida Cauthorne White, president of the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society; and other descendants of the Stewart sisters. The dedication featured musical selections by Juanita Cox. The unveiling of the marker was led by Fannie R. Thomas, a granddaughter of Mary Stewart Johnson and the only surviving grandchild of the Stewart sisters, along with other descendants of the Stewart sisters. Refreshments were served at the conclusion of the unveiling.
On August 15, 1884, while traveling aboard the steamer Sue from Baltimore to visit family in the Kinsale community of Westmoreland County, four Virginia-born sisters, Martha and Winnie Stewart, Mary Johnson, and Lucy Jones, were denied first-class quarters because they were Black. The sisters filed a lawsuit in federal court with help from the Rev. Harvey Johnson, a civil rights leader and the longtime pastor of Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, contending segregated quarters were illegal and that the Sue’s were unequal. The trial court ruled that segregation was reasonable but gave the sisters $100 each because the quarters were unequal. This ruling was affirmed on appeal. The case was one of many brought by Black women in the late 1800s and became an impetus for the creation of the Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, a forerunner of the NAACP.
The Virginia Board of Historic Resources, which is authorized to designate new state historical markers, approved the manufacture and installation of The Stewart Sisters v. The Steamer Sue historical marker in September 2024. The cost of the marker was covered by its sponsor, the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society.
Virginia’s historical highway marker program began in 1927 with installation of the first markers along U.S. Route 1. It is considered the oldest such program in the nation. Currently there are more than 2,600 state markers, mostly maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation, except in those localities outside of VDOT’s authority.
Full Text of Marker:
The Stewart Sisters v. The Steamer Sue
On 15 Aug. 1884, Virginia-born sisters Martha and Winnie Stewart, Mary Johnson, and Lucy Jones were denied first-class quarters because of their race when traveling on the steamer Sue from Baltimore to visit family in Kinsale. With support from the Rev. Harvey Johnson, they filed suit in federal court asserting that segregated quarters were illegal and that the Sue’s were unequal. The trial court’s ruling that segregation was reasonable but giving the sisters $100 each because the quarters were unequal was affirmed on appeal. The case, one of many brought by Black women in the late 1800s, was an impetus for the creation of the Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, a forerunner of the NAACP.
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