Sarah Keys
In 1952, Sarah Louise Keys, a member of the Army Corps, while returning home from Fort Dix, NJ, in her uniform, refused to vacate her seat for a white person. On September 1, 1953, she challenged the separate but equal bus segregation before the Interstate Commerce Commission in the case Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company. Although the initial reviewing commissioner declined to hear her case, it was later resolved in favor of Keys in 1955, with the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling that racial segregation on Interstate buses is a violation of the Interstate Commerce Act.
