As a member of the integrated Women’s Army Corps, Private First Class Sarah Keys served her country as a receptionist at Fort Dix, New Jersey. When she boarded a bus home to North Carolina in 1952, she never expected to be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct for refusing to move to the rear so a white Marine could take her seat. Her landmark 1955 Civil Rights victory, “Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company” not only desegregated interstate bus travel, it also provided the legal precedent needed during the 1961 Freedom Rides to pressure the Interstate Commerce Commission to properly enforce its Sarah Keys ruling. Often overlooked in many accounts of the Civil Rights era, her arrest and victory are crucial milestones in the fight against segregation. Riding into History draws on years of personal conversations with Sarah Keys Evans as well as extensive research to present a biography of this hero and her role in the struggle for civil rights alongside the long history of many other Black Americans, especially women, who protested racial segregation in interstate travel.

Amy Nathan is the author of more than fifteen books, including A Ride to Remember: A Civil Rights Story.

“It took many heroes to overturn legally enforced racial segregation. Students learn about Rosa Parks, but they also should learn about Private First-Class Sarah Keys.”
-- Alan J. Singer, author of Class-Conscious Coal Miners: The Emergence of a Working-Class Movement in Central Pennsylvania

Author’s Note  ix
Preface  xi
1. Leading the Way  1
2. A Glimmer of Hope  4
3. Test Rides  27
4. Heading Home  34
5. “The Quietist of Us All”  42
6. Education Backstory: North Carolina  58
7. “Can Anything Be Done for My People?”  78
8. A Plan of Attack  102
9. Finding a Strategy  113
10. Never Give Up  125
11. Winning a Wider Victory  134
12. Moving On  147
13. Closing the Circle  167
Acknowledgments  185
Appendix. Transportation Heroes Brigade  189
Timeline  203
Notes  207
Sources  237
Index