Skip to content
Orange County Public Library (opens the library’s website in a new tab)

Event

Journey of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, 1947

The interracial bus ride whose riders were arrested in Chapel Hill and convicted in Orange County, formally cleared in 2022.

From the state marker

“In 1947 the Congress of Racial Equality & local citizens, black & white, protested bus segregation. Setting out from Washington, D.C., "freedom riders" tested….”

State historical marker: G-127: Journey of Reconciliation

2 works about Journey of Reconciliation in Chapel Hill, 1947 are indexed here.

Search these 2 works Research sources View indexed works ↓
Bayard Rustin, 1963, one of the riders of 1947
Bayard Rustin, 1963, one of the riders of 1947

In the chronology

Chronology entries for this event, in date order. See these 8 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. 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. Charles M. Jones takes interracial bus riders into his home According to Frank Porter Graham, Jones, without being a party to the project, took into his home as a refuge from threats of violence the riders of both races who were testing the law requiring separate seats on interstate and state buses, the Journey of Reconciliation that reached Chapel Hill in April 1947. Graham added that Jones's home was once stoned and his family's safety threatened. People: Charles M. Jones Place: Charles M. Jones home, Chapel Hill · Also named: Frank Porter GrahamSearch the index · Internet Archive: Frank P. Graham, Summary of His Written and Spoken Statements on the Case of the Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church (1953), p. 15
  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: 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
  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) 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
  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: 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
  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: 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)
  7. 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
  8. 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

Places in this history

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, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. 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.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Roodenko, Igal.

NC Cardinal UNC

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: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

UNC

Start at OCPL

Books in OCPL’s Rebecca B. Wall Local History Collection whose titles, catalog subjects, or descriptions match this event. The Friends’ recommended starting points are labelled. Books marked Wider context cover the broader subject rather than this event itself.

  • Wider context · 323.119 GRE Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina Greene, Christina · 2005

    Christina Greene's history of Black and white women in Durham's freedom movement, from the fight against Jim Crow in the 1940s through the protests of 1957 to 1963, neighborhood organizing among poor residents, the War on Poverty, Black Power politics and a boycott. Revised from her 1996 Duke doctoral thesis, it was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2005; 366 pages with bibliography and index.

  • Wider context · 975.6 DRE Triumph of Good Will: How Terry Sanford Beat A Champion of Segregation and Reshaped the South Drescher, John · 2000

    The 1960 Democratic primary for governor, in which Terry Sanford, campaigning on education and a moderate line on integration, beat the segregationist law professor I. Beverly Lake, is the subject of John Drescher's book. Part campaign history and part biography of Sanford, it argues that his approach became a model for later Southern Democrats such as Jim Hunt, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Published by the University Press of Mississippi in 2000.

  • Wider context · NC 810 WRITING Writing Civil Rights: The Pursuit of Justice in African American Literature : A Collection of Student Reflections, Summer 2011 2011

    Reflections by incarcerated students at Orange Correctional Center in Hillsborough, written for a Stepping Stones seminar on the pursuit of justice in African American literature that Patrick Elliot Alexander and Allison Curseen taught from June 20 to August 22, 2011. Writings by Pauli Murray and Martin Luther King Jr. figure in the 54-page collection.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this event. Research guide: Follow an event across several accounts.

Background 5

Records of the time 5

Collections and databases

Local help

Related themes

Community & Civic Organizations →Politics & Government →The Chapel Hill civil-rights demonstrations, 1963–1964 →Chapel Hill freedom movement, 1960–1965 →Churches & Faith →

Picture: Bayard Rustin, 1963, one of the riders of 1947. 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

More to discover

Keep Reading Local

The Friends connect people with new library materials, local writers and publishers, and resources documenting Orange County.

Browse New Arrivals → Meet Local Authors → Explore Local Publishers →
Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026