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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 as the Library of Congress records it · Library of Congress authority record ↗

1 indexed work is connected with this person.

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Bayard Rustin, 1963
Bayard Rustin, 1963

Indexed works

Works in the index that concern this person directly, or were written by them. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it; background reading with wider context sits further down.

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.

Why this is here: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Rustin, Bayard, 1912-1987.

UNC

Life and Orange County connections

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

  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. FelmetTown of Chapel Hill: Information packet for Freedom Riders resolution (Council agenda, January 28, 2008)
  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

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

All places and the county map →

Named with them in the chronology

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.

Research sources

Resources picked for this person, each with a note on what it holds. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further.

Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Bayard Rustin Library card An advanced search of the state’s shared databases already scoped to Orange County’s places and this subject; edit it freely, and sign in through your North Carolina library to read
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Books about Bayard Rustin

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

Searched with the Library of Congress heading Rustin, Bayard, 1912-1987, which helps separate this person from others with the same name. The historical records searches look for the name as written, so they can turn up other people with the same name. Each link opens that catalog’s own results in a new tab. The Friends have not reviewed what they return.

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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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