In 1942, he boarded a bus in Louisville, bound for Nashville, and sat in the second row. A number of drivers asked him to move to the back, but Rustin refused. The bus was stopped by police 13 miles north of Nashville and Rustin was arrested. He was beaten and taken to the police station, but was released uncharged.- Wikipedia: Baryard Rustin
In 1944, the 27-year-old Irene Morgan was traveling to Baltimore, Maryland when she was arrested and jailed in Virginia for refusing to sit in a segregated section on an interstate Greyhound bus. Although interstate transportation was supposed to be desegregated, the state enforced segregated seating within its borders.
The bus driver stopped in Middlesex County, Virginia, and summoned the sheriff. When he tried to arrest Morgan, she tore up the arrest warrant, kicked the sheriff in the groin, and fought with the deputy who tried to pull her off the bus. She was convicted of violating state law for segregation on buses and other public transportation. Morgan pled guilty to the charge of resisting arrest and was fined $100. However, she refused the guilty plea for violating Virginia's segregation law.- Wikipedia: Irene Morgan
When Sarah Keys departed her WAC post in Fort Dix, New Jersey on the evening of July 31, 1952 for her home in the town of Washington, North Carolina, she boarded an integrated bus and transferred without incident in Washington, D.C. to a Carolina Trailways vehicle, taking the fifth seat from the front in the white section. When the bus pulled into the town of Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, however, a new driver took the wheel and demanded that she comply with the carrier's Jim Crow regulation by moving to the so-called "colored section" in the back of the bus so that a white Marine could occupy her seat. Keys refused to move, whereupon the driver emptied the bus, directed the other passengers to another vehicle, and barred Keys from boarding it. An altercation ensued and Keys was arrested, charged with disorderly conduct, jailed incommunicado overnight, then convicted of the disorderly conduct charge and fined $25.- Wikipedia: Keys v. Carolina Coach Co
On March 2, 1955, she was the first person arrested for resisting bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, preceding the more publicized Rosa Parks incident by nine months.- Wikipedia: Claudette Colvin
Även om alla händelserna är intressanta fastnade jag för Sarah Keys; här är en artikel om när hon, efter över tre år, hade vunnit sitt mål (klicka för större version).
The commission ruled in her case against the Carolina Coach Company of Raleigh, N. C. It ruled that separating the races in passenger conveyances operating in interstate commerce "subjects passengers to unjust discrimination, and undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage" in violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.
[...]
The N. A. A. C. P., [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] commenting on the ruling, said yesterday "we consider it a most significant step in our efforts to eradicate compulsory racial segregation from all phases of public life in America."- Winner Acclaims Decision by I. C. C., New York Times, 27 november 1955
Fyra dagar senare tog Rosa Parks bussen i Montgomery, Alabama.
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