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Before there was Rosa Parks, there was Sarah Mae Flemming.
Sarah Mae Who, you may ask? That’s a fair question, because her story is nowhere near as widely known as that of her Alabama compatriot. Nonetheless, Flemming’s profile in courage is not only every bit as moving; it was also an important milestone on the long road to civil rights in our state and nation.
Born on her family’s 188-acre farm near Eastover, S.C. in 1933, Flemming was unable to finish high school. Economic necessity compelled her to go to work.
Flemming first spent a year with an uncle in Ohio, then returned home and moved in with a cousin – doing domestic work in and around Columbia. She might have labored on in obscurity for the rest of her life had it not been for a mix-up one Tuesday morning in 1954.
Flemming was hurrying to work on June 22 when she climbed aboard a city bus. This was during the age of racial segregation, when Jim Crow laws were in effect across much of the Deep South. These laws included a mandate that public transportation be segregated, with blacks forced to sit in the less desirable rear sections of buses – such as the one Flemming boarded on this fateful morning.
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In her haste – and out of necessity – Flemming sat down in the only empty seat, believing it to be in the “colored section.” Instead, according to the bus driver, it was actually located in the area reserved exclusively for white passengers.
“Can’t you wait until someone gets off the bus before you sit down?’ the driver snapped. “Get up. And I mean right now!”
Deeply embarrassed, Flemming pulled the cord – signaling she wanted to get off at the next stop. But when she tried to exit at the front of the bus, the driver blocked her path and punched her in the stomach – forcing her to exit from the rear of the vehicle.
Flemming was hurt and humiliated as the bus took off, leaving her on the sidewalk.
Word of the incident spread throughout Columbia’s black community. People’s initial shock gave way to anger and a determination to do something about the injustice.
A delegation approached white attorney Phillip Wittenberg, who agreed to take on the case. And so Flemming v. South Carolina Electric and Gas was filed in U.S. District Court on July 21, 1954. The lawsuit claimed Flemming had been denied her 14th Amendment right to equal protection.
It’s worth noting many power companies around the country operated city bus systems at the time. It was a carryover from the days when cities utilized streetcars and trolleys, many of which we electric. SCE&G ran Columbia’s bus system from 1937 to 2002, though by the 1950s all its vehicles were either gasoline or diesel powered.
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The legal road was long and yielded mixed results. On February 16, 1955, federal judge George Bell Timmerman, Sr. dismissed the case. Flemming appealed, sending it to the U.S. fourth circuit court of appeals. On July 14, this court reversed Timmerman’s decision and ordered further proceedings.
SCE&G then appealed that decision – and on April 23, 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the case.
In the meantime, though, something significant happened 375 miles to the west.
On December 1, 1955, a young black woman named Rosa Parks was heading home from a long day at work. At 5:30 p.m. EST, she boarded a packed city bus in Montgomery, Alabama. As more white passengers came on board, black riders in Parks’ row were ordered to give up their seats so white riders could sit. The two black riders seated beside her complied. Parks, who was in pain due to an attack of bursitis, did not.
“I felt that if I did stand up, it meant that I approved of the way I was being treated,” Parks recalled. “And I did not approve.”
Parks was arrested for violating Montgomery’s municipal code. The case sparked national outrage and triggered the landmark Montgomery Bus Boycott, whose key leaders included a young (and still largely unknown) Baptist minister named Dr. Martin Luther King.
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While all that was happening in Alabama, back in South Carolina Judge Timmerman dismissed Flemming’s suit a second time on June 13, 1956.
However, public attitudes toward racial segregation were starting to shift, thanks in part to the attention generated by Parks’ arrest and the subsequent bus boycott.
At this point, Wittenberg stepped down and Flemming’s case was handed over to civil rights lawyer (and future Supreme Court associate justice) Thurgood Marshall and noted civil rights advocate Robert L. Carter. Their final appeal once again resulted in a ruling in the defendant’s favor.
However, Flemming’s case was not a lost cause. It was cited in Parks’ later defense and helped pave the way for the desegregation of public transportation.
Flemming married amid all the legal maneuvering and went on to raise a family of three children. She died of a heart attack on June 16, 1993, less than two weeks before her 60th birthday, and was buried in Eastover.
In 2013, the city street where she entered the history books was renamed in her honor.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.
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