North Carolina History from the Black Gaze: Before Rosa Parks, There Was Sarah

Everyone knows the event that happened on December 1st, 1955, that sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Mrs. Rosa Parks had refused to give up her seat. This is the story we heard in history class. Over the years, as social media improved and black consciousness spread we learned of Mrs. Claudette Colvin. She also refused to give up her seat, BEFORE Rosa.

On March 2, 1955, Claudette was sick and tired too. At the age of 15, she too was sick and tired of entering the bus from the front to pay. Then having to get off and walk to the back of the bus, to once again enter and finally sit down.

I have another story for you, one that came before Rosa & Claudette. She was not the first, to give up her seat, but she is from North Carolina — her name is Sarah Evans Keys.

She had joined the U.S. Army’s Women’s Army Corp (WAC) and was on leave for her first visit home back to Lil’ Washington (to distinguish it from Washington, D.C., also known as ‘The Original Washington’). On August 1st, 1952 she had started her journey, boarding at Trenton, New Jersey, without a problem. Everything changed once the driver’s switched shifts, the new driver had an issue with where she was sitting on the bus after a white marine had boarded the bus at Roanoke Rapids (they were now in North Carolina).

Her case was brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission with Dovey Johnson Roundtree as her lawyer and wasn’t settled until 1955. In Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, the ICC favored Keys Evans, ruling the Interstate Commerce Act forbids segregation.

“We find that the practice of the defendant requiring that Negro interstate passengers occupy space or seats in specified portions of its buses, subjects such passengers to unjust discrimination, and undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage, in violation of Section 216 (d) of the Interstate Commerce Act.”

Whether one served their country or not, there are countless stories of those enlisted in the military and even those who were returning from war zones to come home to fight the race war at home. Regardless of the fact they shared the same uniform with their white counterparts.

Legacy

• Keys was invited to speak at the 1997 Dedication of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial
• In 2020, Roanoke Rapids declared August 1 to be “Sarah Keys Evans Day,” and dedicated a mural depicting her story.
• The 117th United States Congress considered a bill awarding Keys with the Congressional Gold Medal.
• Sarah Evans Keys died on November 16, 2023, at the age of 95.