Amongst them was a lady known as Sarah Mae Flemming. In June 1954, Flemming was concerned in an incident that’s far much less celebrated than the Montgomery bus boycott. But it was an incident that actually laid the muse for the eventual overturning of Jim Crow legal guidelines as utilized to public transport.
Flemming was a toddler of the Nice Melancholy, one in all seven kids raised by a farming couple whose personal mother and father had been enslaved. Born on 28 June 1933, she grew up alongside her siblings in a busy family close to Eastover, South Carolina, a small group some 20 miles south-east of the state capital, Columbia.
After graduating from highschool, Flemming labored briefly for a relative in Ohio earlier than returning to South Carolina to assist help her household, taking a place as a maid for white residents in one in all Columbia’s prosperous suburbs.
The day that modified her life, 22 June 1954, began a lot as every other: she boarded a bus to work. At first there was standing room solely, till a seat was vacated by a departing white passenger. When Flemming took the seat, nevertheless, the motive force shouted at her to maneuver. In line with contentious proof he gave later in court docket, she had breached the ‘color line’ – the long-standing system of racial segregation enforced by so-called Jim Crow legal guidelines – by sitting in entrance of two white girls.
Flemming tried to comply with white passengers by means of the entrance exit. The livid bus driver stood in her method
Embarrassed, Flemming determined that she would stroll the remaining 2 miles to work, and pulled the twine for the following cease. At the moment, black Individuals have been required to enter and go away buses by the rear door – however the aisle was too crowded, so she tried to comply with white passengers by means of the entrance exit. The driving force stood in her method, then struck her within the abdomen. Flemming was compelled to shuffle by means of the rear door, and from there to a hospital. Worse than the ache from the punch was the wound to her dignity.
From insult, alternative
The harm and humiliation of 1 younger girl did, although, current a chance to the broader black group. Only a month earlier, america Supreme Courtroom had reached a landmark choice within the case of Brown v Board of Schooling of Topeka, outlawing college segregation. To Modjeska Monteith Simkins, the secretary of the South Carolina department of the NAACP – the nationwide organisation based in 1909 to combat for civil rights for folks of color – Flemming’s mistreatment introduced an opportunity to check whether or not that ruling additionally utilized to public transport. Flemming agreed to assist, resolving to problem Jim Crow legal guidelines regardless of the dangers to which she can be uncovered.
Simkins employed white lawyer Philip Wittenberg, who filed a swimsuit accusing the bus firm of getting violated Flemming’s proper to the total safety of the legislation beneath the Fourteenth Modification to the US Structure. He sought $25,000 in damages.
The authorized course of in Flemming v South Carolina Electrical and Gasoline Firm (who operated the bus) was convoluted and sluggish. District Courtroom Decide George Bell Timmerman, a staunch segregationist, dismissed the case on the grounds that the Brown choice utilized solely to varsities and to not public transport. The NAACP assisted with an enchantment to the US Fourth Circuit Courtroom, which deemed that the Brown choice utilized to all facets of public life – and that the Flemming case should proceed to trial.
Civil rights activists sensed that they have been on the verge of a breakthrough – a notion sharpened when, in April 1956, the Supreme Courtroom refused to listen to an enchantment from the bus firm. NAACP government secretary Roy Wilkins noticed the choice as the tip of bus segregation, telling reporters: “Now that the Supreme Courtroom has spoken with readability, we’re hopeful that almost all of communities all through the South will fall in line.”
There appeared good motive for such optimism. Inside a day, transit firms in 13 cities throughout the area had introduced the desegregation of their buses. That included Montgomery Metropolis Strains, which instructed its drivers to not implement segregated seating, an motion blocked when metropolis officers secured a court docket injunction.
But the Flemming case didn’t win the combat towards the color line in Montgomery – the place the boycott was ongoing, and would proceed for over a 12 months – or elsewhere. Each side within the civil rights wrestle quickly realised that the Supreme Courtroom had not truly decided whether or not segregated busing was unconstitutional, solely that it will not take into account an enchantment till the decrease court docket had truly heard the case.
Battle strains in Montgomery remained drawn: white metropolis leaders secured an injunction that stopped the bus firm desegregating, whereas black activists persevered with their boycott. “Jim Crow Dies Onerous,” affirmed a headline within the Washington Submit. Proving the purpose, when the Flemming case returned to the district court docket in June 1956, Decide Timmerman dismissed it a second time. Not till June 1957, following a profitable enchantment by Flemming’s attorneys, did the case lastly convene. It was not well worth the wait. A wholly white male jury took solely half-hour to resolve towards the plaintiff.
Serving a higher good
Flemming had misplaced the need to combat. Fairly than stay concerned within the escalating civil rights wrestle, she retreated into the privateness of household life, elevating three kids along with her husband, whom she married whereas the case was ongoing. “As for myself,” she knowledgeable the press, “I by no means rode a metropolis bus since they put me off and I by no means will once more.” Her personal battle had resulted in defeat, however Flemming had contributed to the broader triumph of civil rights activists.
In February 1956, attorneys filed swimsuit on behalf of 4 black feminine plaintiffs who had been mistreated on Montgomery buses. 4 months later, a district court docket dominated of their favour, placing down bus segregation. In November, the US Supreme Courtroom affirmed the choice within the case of Browder v Gayle. A 12 months after it had begun, the organisers of the Montgomery bus boycott had gained a decisive victory.
It’s not identified whether or not Flemming was even conscious of the very fact, however the judges who dominated that segregated busing was unconstitutional cited as precedent the enchantment court docket ruling in her case that ‘separate however equal’ now not had any foundation in legislation. Flemming didn’t obtain justice, however her combat by means of the courts had served a good higher good.
The combat for racial equality was largely about atypical folks performing extraordinary acts of braveness
Sarah Mae Flemming lived the remainder of her life, away from the highlight, in Eastover along with her husband and their three kids till her premature loss of life on 16 June 1993, aged simply 59. By then, Rosa Parks had lengthy overshadowed her – a scenario compounded by the truth that Flemming by no means spoke publicly about her contribution to the civil rights trigger.
Barely a footnote in histories of the motion written throughout her lifetime, her story has belatedly been rediscovered. At present, locals and guests to downtown Columbia can stroll alongside Sarah Mae Flemming Technique to see the spectacular mural that honours her reminiscence. It’s a reminder that, although charismatic civil rights leaders comparable to Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X grew to become the main target of most consideration, the combat for racial equality was as a lot – if no more – about atypical folks comparable to Flemming performing extraordinary acts of braveness.
Clive Webb and Tom Adam Davies are, respectively, professor and affiliate professor of American historical past on the College of Sussex
This text was first printed within the July 2025 difficulty of BBC History Magazine