Chronology

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1. Civil rights era · 1945–1975

2. April 1947–March 1949
   Protest or organizing · Chapel Hill Journey of Reconciliation comes to Chapel Hill

   Interracial riders testing segregation on interstate buses reached Chapel Hill on April 12, 1947. The next day police arrested four of them at the bus station and a white cab driver struck rider James Peck. Convicted in Orange County, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joe Felmet surrendered at the Hillsborough courthouse on March 21, 1949 to serve chain-gang sentences.

3. June 24, 1947
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill Joseph Felmet is tried in Chapel Hill Recorder's Court on the bus seating charge and sentenced to the roads

   Felmet's trial, put off in May while Bayard Rustin and Igal Roodenko were tried, was held in Chapel Hill Recorder's Court on June 24, 1947. He was sentenced to the county roads, appealed to Superior Court and posted a $50 bond.

4. March 1948
   Law, policy or court · Hillsborough An Orange County Superior Court jury convicts Felmet and the other three Chapel Hill bus defendants

   A jury found Andrew S. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joseph Felmet guilty of breaking the bus seating law, and Judge Chester Morris sentenced each to 30 days. The men, defended by C. J. Gates, Herman L. Taylor and E. R. Avent, appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court and posted bond.

5. January 7, 1949
   Law, policy or court · Chapel Hill North Carolina Supreme Court upholds the convictions of Felmet and the other Chapel Hill bus riders

   In State v. Johnson the court affirmed the Orange County convictions, holding that the state seating statutes applied unless the riders proved they were interstate passengers. The opinion, like the lower court record, spells his name Joseph A. Felmont.

6. Recent decades · 1976–2026

7. June 17, 2022
   Law, policy or court · Countywide Journey of Reconciliation convictions are vacated

   On June 17, 2022, Orange County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour vacated the disorderly conduct convictions of Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Andrew Johnson and Joseph Felmet. The four Journey of Reconciliation riders had been arrested in Chapel Hill in April 1947 for refusing to leave the front of an interstate bus.

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Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.