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Joseph A. Felmet

Joseph A. Felmet of Asheville, a white UNC graduate, was one of four men, two Black and two white, arrested by Chapel Hill police in April 1947 after they sat together at the front of a Greensboro-bound bus and refused to move.

Source: DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, April 15, 1947, page 1

Also found in catalogs as Joseph Felmet.

1921–1994 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 work about Joseph A. Felmet is indexed here.

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Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens in the chronology.

Chapel Hill's recorder's court, 1928–19641928–1964 · Chapel Hill's recorder's court, which voters approved 93 to 8 in 1929, tried the township's misdemeanors in town. At its first session, on June 3, 1929, with C. P. Hinshaw on the bench, six cases were tried, and by March 1931 it had tried 780, only five of them appealed, while Superior Court terms at Hillsboro shrank from about five days to three. From 1931 town voters elected the judge, and in 1937 more than 200 residents petitioned to keep that election. In 1947 it sentenced Joseph Felmet to the county roads on the bus seating charge. In 1964 L. J. Phipps, first its judge in 1933, returned to the bench.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 7 dated events in the chronology →

  1. UNC junior Joe Felmet is elected executive secretary of the campus American Student Union The Daily Tar Heel reported that Felmet, a junior from Asheville who had been active in the American Student Union for two years, was elected unanimously as executive secretary of the Carolina chapter after representing it at the group's national convention in New York. He took his A.B. at UNC in 1942.Search the index · The Daily Tar Heel, February 16, 1941, p. 2
  2. 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. People: Bayard Rustin, George Houser, Igal Roodenko, Joseph A. FelmetTown of Chapel Hill: Information packet for Freedom Riders resolution (Council agenda, January 28, 2008)
  3. 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. People: Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal RoodenkoSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 4, 1948, p. 4
  4. Superior court continues the Journey of Reconciliation bus seating case When the August term opened, Judge Walter J. Bone granted defense lawyer C. J. Gates of Durham a continuance in the case of Andrew S. Johnson, Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko and Joseph Felmet, charged under the state bus seating law. Solicitor W. H. Murdock had opposed the motion and asked for trial. People: Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Joseph A. Felmet, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation)The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 21, 1947, p. 1
  5. 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. People: Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal RoodenkoSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 25, 1948, p. 1
  6. 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. People: Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal RoodenkoSearch the index · Caselaw Access Project: State v. Johnson, 229 N.C. 701 (1949)
  7. 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. People: Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Joseph A. FelmetOrange County, NC: Journey of Reconciliation

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Joseph A. Felmet, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Joseph A. Felmet. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

Oral history interview with Igal Roodenko, April 11, 1974 interview B-0010, Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).

Roodenko, Igal · 2007 · University Library, UNC-Chapel Hill

Southern Oral History Program group interview recorded April 11, 1974, with pacifist and civil rights worker Igal Roodenko joined by Joseph Felmet (1921-1994) and Charlotte Adams, questioned by Jacquelyn Hall and Jerry Wingate over about two and a quarter hours. Roodenko, born in New York in 1917 to immigrant parents, recalls the dilemma pacifists faced during the Second World War, conscientious objection, and Congress of Racial Equality activism against segregated transportation; the interview also covers chain gangs in North Carolina and civil rights demonstrations in Chapel Hill. Electronic edition, UNC Library, 2007.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Felmet, Joseph, 1921-1994.

NC Cardinal UNC

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Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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