''Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'', 64 MCC 769 (1955) is a landmark

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

case in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in which the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

, in response to a bus segregation complaint filed in 1953 by a

Women's Army Corps The Women's Army Corps (WAC; ) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), on 15 May 1942, and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the United S ...

(WAC) private named Sarah Louise Keys, broke with its historic adherence to the ''

Plessy v. Ferguson ''Plessy v. Ferguson'', 163 U.S. 537 (1896), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that ...

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protectio ...

doctrine and interpreted the non-discrimination language of the

Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just", but did not empowe ...

as banning the

segregation Segregation may refer to: Separation of people * Geographical segregation, rates of two or more populations which are not homogenous throughout a defined space * School segregation * Housing segregation * Racial segregation, separation of human ...

of black passengers in buses traveling across state lines. Sarah Louise Keys

The case was filed on the eve of the explosion of the Civil Rights Movement by

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, lawyer Julius Winfield Robertson and his partner,

Dovey Johnson Roundtree Dovey Mae Johnson Roundtree (April 17, 1914 – May 21, 2018) was an African-American civil rights activist, ordained minister, and attorney. Her 1955 victory before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the first bus desegregation case to be b ...

, a former WAC whose experience with Jim Crow bus travel during her

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Army recruiting days caused her to take on the case as a personal mission. ''Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'', along with its companion train desegregation case, ''NAACP v. St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company'', represents a milestone in the legal battle for

. The November 1955 ruling, publicly announced six days before

Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005) was an American civil rights activist. She is best known for her refusal to move from her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, in defiance of Jim Crow laws, which sparke ...

' historic defiance of state

Jim Crow laws The Jim Crow laws were U.S. state, state and local laws introduced in the Southern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that enforced Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, "Jim Crow (character), Ji ...

on Montgomery buses, applied the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

's logic in ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

'' for the first time to the field of interstate transportation, and closed the legal loophole that private bus companies had long exploited to impose their own Jim Crow regulations on black interstate travelers. ''Keys v. Carolina Coach'' was the only explicit rejection ever made by either a court or a federal administrative body of the ''

'' doctrine in the field of bus travel across state lines. The ruling made legal history both at the time of its issuance and again in 1961, when

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968), also known as RFK, was an American politician and lawyer. He served as the 64th United States attorney general from January 1961 to September 1964, and as a U.S. senator from New Yo ...

invoked it in his successful battle to end Jim Crow travel during the

Freedom Riders Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the Racial segregation in the United States, segregated Southern United States, Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of t ...

' campaign. in the matter of For review see

Background

The ''Keys'' case originated in an incident that occurred at a bus station in the

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

town of Roanoke Rapids shortly after midnight on August 1, 1952, when

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

WAC private Sarah Keys was forced by a local bus driver to yield her seat in the front of the vehicle to a white Marine as she traveled homeward on furlough., citing ICC ruling in At the time of the incident,

entirely governed Southern bus travel, despite a 1946 Supreme Court ruling meant to put an end to the practice. That decision, '' Morgan v. Virginia'', had declared state

inoperative on interstate buses on the basis that the imposition of widely varying statutes on black passengers moving across state lines generated multiple seat changes and thus created the kind of disorder and inconsistency forbidden by the

commerce clause The Commerce Clause describes an enumerated power listed in the United States Constitution ( Article I, Section 8, Clause 3). The clause states that the United States Congress shall have power "to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and amon ...

of the

U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constituti ...

. Southern carriers managed to dodge the ''Morgan'' decision, however, by passing segregation rules of their own, and those rules remained outside the purview of state and federal courts because they pertained to private businesses. In addition, the federal agency charged with regulating the carriers, the

, had historically interpreted the

Interstate Commerce Act The Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 is a United States federal law that was designed to regulate the railroad industry, particularly its monopolistic practices. The Act required that railroad rates be "reasonable and just", but did not empowe ...

's discrimination ban as permitting separate accommodations for the races so long as they were equal. The ICC's

policy, upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in a 1950 railway dining car segregation case known as '' Henderson v. United States'', thus remained the norm in public transportation. When Sarah Keys departed her WAC post in Fort Dix,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

on the evening of July 31, 1952 bound for her hometown of

Washington, North Carolina Washington is a city in Beaufort County, North Carolina, United States, located on the northern bank of the Pamlico River. The population was 9,875 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is the county seat of Beaufort County. It is c ...

, she boarded an integrated bus in New Jersey and transferred without incident in

to a Carolina

Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is a public transport bus service in the United States. It operates a network of approximately 70 independent bus companies. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Tra ...

vehicle, taking the fifth seat from the front in the white section. When her bus pulled into the Roanoke Rapids Trailways terminal, 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. Unwilling to accept the verdict of the North Carolina lower court sustaining the charge, Keys and her father brought the matter to the attention of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

(NAACP) office in Washington, D.C., headed by

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

Law School professor Frank D. Reeves. Reeves referred Keys' case to his former law student

, whose

service in the

(WAC) he believed would make her an ideal advocate for Sarah Keys. Roundtree herself, as a recruiter for the WAC in the Deep South, had been evicted from a Miami,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

bus in a 1943 incident that almost exactly paralleled Sarah Keys' experience. She and her law partner and mentor Julius Winfield Robertson undertook the case, filing a complaint against both the Northern carrier which had transported Keys to Washington, D.C., and the Southern carrier which had actually perpetrated the alleged wrong, Carolina Trailways. Though Robertson and Roundtree were but a year at the bar in the fall of 1952 when they undertook to represent Sarah Keys, they had been trained at

Law School by such renowned civil rights lawyers as

Thurgood Marshall Thoroughgood "Thurgood" Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme C ...

, James Nabrit Jr., and George E.C. Hayes, and they were deeply involved in the movement to dismantle segregation in the courts. Writing years later in her autobiography about the unique bond she had with her client, Dovey Roundtree said, "It was as though I sat looking in a mirror, so strong was my sense of having walked where Sarah Keys had walked."

Three-year battle

The match of client Sarah Keys with the young firm of Robertson and Roundtree proved fortuitous, as did the timing of the case, which unfolded during the same two-year period that the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

was hearing oral arguments in the landmark school desegregation case, ''

''. When the US District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the ''Keys'' complaint on February 23, 1953, on jurisdictional grounds, Roundtree and Robertson elected to bring their case before the

, which they believed might be persuaded to re-evaluate its traditional interpretation of the Interstate Commerce Act, in the same way that the Supreme Court was then re-evaluating its interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment. On September 1, 1953, two months before

and his legal team made the second round of oral arguments in ''Brown'' before the Supreme Court asserting that the Fourteenth Amendment's "equal protection" clause prohibited segregation, Sarah Keys became the first black petitioner to bring a complaint before the Commission on a Jim Crow bus matter. When the Supreme Court handed down its epochal ruling on May 17, 1954, in ''

'', the ICC initially chose to ignore it. In a September 30, 1954 ruling, ICC hearing examiner Isadore Freidson stated that ''Brown'' had no relevance to the conduct of business by a private bus carrier. Citing ''

'' as well as several 19th-century ICC decisions handed down prior to ''Plessy'', and others which the Supreme Court had later overturned, Freidson argued that the non-discrimination language of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 did not prohibit segregation. Roundtree, through a Spelman classmate who lived in Sarah Keys' Congressional district, contacted Congressman Adam Clayton Powell to protest Freidson's ruling and demand a re-hearing by the full 11-man Commission. Following Powell's intervention, the re-hearing was granted, and Roundtree and Robertson were given 30 days to file exceptions. In those exceptions, the lawyers invoked both the

of the

US Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally including seven articles, the Constitut ...

and the Supreme Court's reasoning in ''Brown'' and applied it explicitly to the area of transportation. On November 7, 1955, in a historic ruling, the Commission condemned 'separate but equal' in the field where it had begun—public transportation. In the ''Keys'' case, and in the NAACP's companion train case attacking segregation on railroads and in terminal waiting rooms, ''NAACP v. St. Louis-Santa Fe Railway Company'', the ICC ruled that the

prohibited segregation itself. The ''Keys'' decision, made public just one week before

' defiance of the bus segregation laws of the city of Montgomery, banned segregation itself as an assault upon the personhood of black travelers, and held in part: "We conclude that the assignment of seats on interstate buses, so designated as to imply the inherent inferiority of a traveler solely because of race or color, must be regarded as subjecting the traveler to unjust discrimination, and undue and unreasonable prejudice and disadvantage...We find that the practice of 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 and is therefore unlawful."

Enforcement

Hailed by the press as a "symbol of a movement that cannot be held back," the ''Keys'' case marked a turning point in the legal battle against segregation, and a major departure from the ICC's history in racial matters. However, in the short term it lay dormant, its intent thwarted by the one ICC commissioner who had dissented from the majority opinion,

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

Democrat J. Monroe Johnson. In his position as chairman of the commission, Johnson consistently failed to enforce the ''Keys'' ruling, and it was not until the summer of 1961, when the violence resulting from the

' campaign prompted Attorney General

to take action, that the impact of the ''Keys'' case was felt. Impelled by the protests of civil rights leaders and the weight of international outrage at the brutality perpetrated on the

Kennedy took the unusual legal step of issuing a petition to the

on May 29, 1961, in which he called upon them to implement their own rulings. Citing the ''Keys'' and ''NAACP'' train case, along with the Supreme Court's 1960 ''

Boynton v. Virginia ''Boynton v. Virginia'', 364 U.S. 454 (1960), was a List of landmark court decisions in the United States, landmark decision of the US Supreme Court.. The case overturned a Legal judgment, judgment conviction (law), convicting an African America ...

'' ruling prohibiting segregation in terminal waiting rooms, restaurants and restrooms, the Attorney General called upon the ICC to issue specific regulations banning Jim Crow in interstate travel, and to take immediate steps to enforce those regulations.

Historical perspective

A major breakthrough in the legal battle for civil rights, ''Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'' has generally been eclipsed in historical accounts of the movement by the events which followed it, notably the defiance of Montgomery,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

's city bus laws by

and the resultant

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social boycott, protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United ...

. Parks' action assumed an importance far beyond the level of a municipal incident, giving rise to a Supreme Court decision banning segregation in travel within the individual states () and igniting the civil rights campaign which thrust the Rev.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...

onto the national stage and paved the way for further reforms. The protest movement King led created an environment in which ''Keys'' and other desegregation rulings could be implemented. For this reason, ''Keys'' represents one critical piece in the complex and multi-faceted fight for civil rights, in which the legal and the activist streams sustained each other and in combination precipitated the dismantling of Jim Crow.

References

Source materials

*"Balky Dixie Keeps Jim Crow in States," ''

The New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates three online sites: NYPost. ...

,'' November 27, 1955. * *Brantley, Alice. "A Definite and Imperative Need for Legislation Against Discrimination," Amending

(Segregation of Passengers) Hearings before the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, 83rd Congress, 2nd Session, May 12–14, 1954, Washington, DC. * * * * *Escobar, Gabriel. "Saluting Military Pioneers, Past and Present," ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

,'' December 8, 1997. *Exceptions to Proposed Report and Order," Robertson and Roundtree to the Interstate Commerce Commission in ''Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'', Docket No. MC-C-1564, in Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division, DOJ File 144-54-56. *"Excerpts from Bus Petition to ICC," ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

,'' May 29, 1961. * *Huston, Luther A. "I.C.C. Orders End of Segregation on Trains, Buses; Deadline Jan. 10; Ruling Follows High Court Edict -- Legal Test Seen," ''

,'' November 25, 1955. *"ICC Aide Calls Travel Segregation Legal," Associated Press in the ''Washington Post'', October 1, 1954 *"ICC Outlaws Travel Bias," ''The Pittsburgh Courier,'' December 3, 1955. *"ICC Ruling: End of an Era," ''The Pittsburgh Courier,'' December 10, 1955. * *"ICC Examiner's Ruling Favors Jimcrow Bias," ''Daily Worker'', September 30, 1954, page 3. * * * * * *"Report and Order Recommended by Isadore Freidson, Examiner," Interstate Commerce Commission in ''Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company'', Docket No. MC-C-1564, in Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division, DOJ file 144-54-56. *Richardson, Clem, "Like Parks, She Wouldn't Budge," ''

New York Daily News The ''Daily News'' is an American newspaper based in Jersey City, New Jersey. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson in New York City as the ''Illustrated Daily News''. It was the first U.S. daily printed in Tabloid (newspaper format ...

,'' December 2, 2005. *Risher, Charles A. "Keys v. Carolina Coach Company," ''Encyclopedia of African-American Civil Rights: From Emancipation to the Present,'' edited by Charles D. Lowery and John F. Marszalek, Greenwood Press, New York, NY 1992, page 298

*"Segregation: Anybody's Seats," ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

,'' December 5, 1955. *"A Tribute to Sarah Keys Evans," Speech of Hon. Edolphus Towns (NY) in the US House of Representatives, ''The Congressional Record,'' Thursday, March 9, 2006. *Warner, James E. "Segregation's End on Buses, Trains Ordered by the I.C.C.," ''

The New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...

,'' November 25, 1955. * *"Winner Acclaims Decision by I.C.C.; Negro Woman in Bus Case Voices Happiness Here at Segregation Ban," ''New York Times,'' November 27, 1955.

External links

* *Bowman, Bowman
"An Unsung Hero in the Fight for Civil Rights"
In ''Our Heritage Magazine.'' *Nathan, Amy
"Take a Seat — Make a Stand: A Hero in the Family"
Book for young readers, reviewed on Social Justice Books. *The

Brian Lehrer Brian Lehrer (born October 5, 1952) is an American radio talk show host on New York City's public radio station WNYC. His daily two-hour 2007 Peabody Award-winning program,

Show
"Black History Month Local Hero"
Conversation with Amy Nathan and Sarah Keys Evans, Feb 9, 2011. {{Civil rights movement United States equal protection case law United States racial desegregation case law Legal history of North Carolina Interstate Commerce Commission litigation 1955 in United States case law 1955 in North Carolina Bus transportation in the United States Law articles needing an infobox Civil rights movement case law Women's Army Corps soldiers Trailways Transportation System Transportation in Halifax County, North Carolina African-American history of North Carolina Women's Army Corps