The black immigrant who challenged US segregation - nearly 190 years ago

It was a cold, rainy day in November 1832 when Brazilian immigrant Emiliano Mundrucu boarded a steamboat - the Telegraph - with his wife Harriet and their one-year-old daughter Emiliana.

They were taking a business trip from the Massachusetts coast to Nantucket Island, in the northeast of the United States.

During the crossing, Harriett, who wasn't feeling well, tried to seek shelter with her daughter in an area of the ship exclusively for women, but their path was blocked. The reason? They were black, and only white women were allowed in the ladies' cabin, comfortable accommodation with private berths.

At that time, slavery was no longer allowed in northern states (it persisted until the Civil War in the US south), but segregationist practices separating whites from "coloured" people were growing.

However, the Mundrucu family did not accept their exclusion and the episode led to a pioneering lawsuit against racial segregation in the United States - proceedings that were big news at the time, but were later forgotten and have only recently been rediscovered by historians.