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Chesapeake & Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company

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Rivalries were intense when the Illinois Central sought to extend its presence in the territory bordering the Gulf of Mexico. In 1882, it had the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad incorporated to build from Jackson, Mississippi, north to the Yazoo Delta in western Mississippi. This move brought IC into conflict with the redoutable Collis P. Huntington, one of the so-called "Big Four" of the Southern Pacific. Huntington's Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad (CO&SW) backed a rival road, the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas Railway (LNO&T). The LNO&T, running west of IC's main line, would link Memphis to New Orleans and connect the CO&S with Southern Pacific. Then to complete the empire, Huntington bought the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad, which ran from Grenada, Mississippi, to Memphis and had previously fed traffic into the IC system.

In the end, IC won out over its rival. It purchased the CO&SW, as well as the LNO&T and the Mississippi and Tennessee, which it consolidated with the Yazoo and Mississippi. By 1896, as a result of these transactions, IC had direct access to both Memphis and Louisville.

In 1884 the CO&SW was at the center of Tennessee's most celebrated civil rights issues when Ida Wells rose to prominence in Memphis’ black community when she and three other black teachers purchased first class tickets on the Memphis-to-Woodstock line on the CO&SW. After she and the teachers had taken their seat in the ladies coach, the conductor passing through the car noticed them and asked them to move to the forward smoking car, which was designated for smokers on the railroad. Ida Wells refused and was forcibly removed from the train. When she returned to Memphis, the outraged passenger promptly filed suit in court against the railroad company for $500 in damages and was awarded the sum by the Memphis Court system. The victory for Ida Wells and the black community was short-lived when attorneys representing the railroad appealed the case to the Tennessee Supreme Court and overturned the decision stating that forward smoking car was designated as "first-class for blacks." In her journal, Ida Wells wrote; "I have firmly believed all along that the law was on our side and would, when we appeal it, give us justice. I feel shorn of that belief and utterly discouraged..."

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