An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 3/5/2021
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"We do not think that the separate but equal doctrine of Plessy v. Ferguson, supra, can any longer be regarded as a correct statement of the law." -- U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit, 1955 ruling in favor of Sarah Mae Flemming Brown
Of course we all know who Rosa Parks was, and it's likely that many of us even know who Claudette Colvin is, but had you ever heard of Sarah Mae Flemming? In many ways Flemming was Parks's forerunner --defiantly challenging segregation on a public bus in South Carolina a full 17 months before the Montgomery, AL flashpoint.
Flemming was born on Eastover, SC in 1933. Granddaughter of slaves, Flemming grew up on her family's own land, graduated from Webber High School, and eventually took as job as a domestic worker in Columbia.
Flemming slipped quietly into history on June 22, 1954 (again, note the date) when she took a front seat on the then-segregated city bus operated by South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G). Bus drivers in Columbia, SC were at the time vested with the equivalent powers of a deputy sheriff (because of course they were). Emboldened, the bus driver took exception as to where Flemming was sitting, as a white woman had just gotten up from the same seat, which in his mind placed Flemming in a "white-only" seating area even though there was no signage. Humiliated, Flemming tried to exit from the front of the bus at the next stop, whereupon the bus driver punched her in the stomach, and directed her to the rear exit.
Encouraged by several well-known civil rights activists and attorneys, Flemming filed suit against SCE&G. Rebuffed in federal court in Columbia, Flemming's case traveled to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond. After years of dismissals, appeals, and two trials (one of which even involved an up-and-coming lawyer named Thurgood Marshall), the court struck down segregation on city buses --a ruling which was mostly ignored. Her win was nevertheless big news in black newspapers across the country: the news that this young woman, in the face of southern Jim Crow politics, could still bravely take a step for civil rights. While Flemming never collected damages, her case laid the groundwork for Rosa Parks' successful suit in 1956 (Browder v. Gayle), and was cited in that decision.
Flemming mostly disappeared from public view after the ruling; marrying attorney John Brown and eventually raising three children. Sarah Mae Flemming Brown died in 1993.
Homework: View the 'Before Rosa' PBS documentary at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLEXx6xv-yo
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