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Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation)

Andrew Johnson, a Black college student on the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, was arrested with Joseph Felmet at the Chapel Hill bus station in April 1947 for keeping a front seat on a Trailways bus. The Superior Court in Hillsborough gave him a month on the chain gang; in 1949 he chose not to surrender, to finish his degree.

Source: Carolina K-12, UNC: Journey of Reconciliation, 1947 (lesson and reading)

Also found in catalogs as Andrew Johnson.

1808–1875 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation). The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation)’s life and work.

Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), 1875
Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), 1875

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, earliest first. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Young Andrew Johnson, walking from Raleigh to Tennessee, is fed and lodged at James Craig's On his way west on foot, the future president Andrew Johnson stopped at James Craig's farmhouse about a mile west of the village and was given supper, a night's lodging and food for the road. He told the story from the steps of the president's house when he returned for the 1867 commencement.Search the index · DocSouth: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. 1 (1907), p. 759
  2. 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 · DigitalNC: The Daily Tar Heel, December 4, 1948, page 4
  3. 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 · DigitalNC: The News of Orange County, March 25, 1948, page 1
  4. 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)
  5. 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

Background on Journey of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, 1947

These works give background on Journey of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, 1947, the wider story this person is part of. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

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.

Charles Miles Jones papers, 1924-1990s.

Jones, Charles Miles, 1906-1993 · 1924

Charles Miles Jones, 1906 to 1993, a Presbyterian minister in Chapel Hill, left these papers covering 1924 into the 1990s, about 1,800 items in 2.5 linear feet, collection 5168 in the Southern Historical Collection at UNC. The papers concern civil rights and segregation in North Carolina, the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church, the Community Church of Chapel Hill, the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen, and names including Frank Porter Graham and Bayard Rustin.

UNC

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Picture: Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), 1875. Public domain. Photograph by Mathew Brady, Retouched by Mmxx; This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cwpbh.03751.This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing.; via Wikimedia Commons

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