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Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin organized the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation with George Houser and was arrested at the Chapel Hill bus station in April 1947 after he and Igal Roodenko took the front seats of two arrested riders. Convicted in Orange County, he surrendered at the Hillsborough courthouse on March 21, 1949 and served 22 days on the Roxboro chain gang.

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

1912–1987 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 work about Bayard Rustin is indexed here.

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Bayard Rustin, 1963
Bayard Rustin, 1963

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each opens its own page, with its events date by date.

StorylineChapel Hill's recorder's court, 1928–19641928–1964 · 9 events · 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 →

During their lifetime

  1. 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. Felmet Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Hillsborough courthouseTown of Chapel Hill: Information packet for Freedom Riders resolution (Council agenda, January 28, 2008) · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 27, 1976, p. 1
  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: Joseph A. Felmet, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal Roodenko Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, December 4, 1948, p. 4
  3. 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) Place: Court house, Hillsborough · Also named: Walter J. Bone, C. J. Gates, W. H. MurdockThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), August 21, 1947, p. 1
  4. 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: Joseph A. Felmet, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal Roodenko Place: Hillsborough · Also named: Chester Morris, C. J. Gates, Herman L. Taylor, E. R. AventSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 25, 1948, p. 1
  5. 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: Joseph A. Felmet, Bayard Rustin, Andrew Johnson (Journey of Reconciliation), Igal Roodenko Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Caselaw Access Project: State v. Johnson, 229 N.C. 701 (1949)
  6. Bayard Rustin and Igal Roodenko surrender in Hillsboro to serve their Journey of Reconciliation sentences During the March term of Superior Court, three of the four men convicted for the 1947 interracial bus-seating test at Chapel Hill, among them Bayard Rustin and Igal Roodenko, surrendered to county officers and were committed to the roads for the 30-day sentences the state Supreme Court had upheld. The fourth man failed to appear and a capias was issued for his arrest. People: Bayard Rustin, Igal Roodenko Place: Orange County Courthouse, HillsboroThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 24, 1949, p. 1

After their death in 1987

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

  1. 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. Felmet Place: Countywide · Also named: Allen BaddourOrange County, NC: Journey of Reconciliation

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Bayard Rustin, 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 Bayard Rustin. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Rustin, Bayard, 1912-1987.

UNC

Places in this person’s story

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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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Background

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  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Bayard Rustin Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
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Picture: Bayard Rustin, 1963. Public domain. Photograph by Leffler, Warren K., photographer; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 09:59, 25 November 2010 (UTC); This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID ppmsc.01272.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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