75th Anniversary of the Journey of Reconciliation

On April 9, 1947, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sent 16 brave civil rights activists, 8 Black and 8 white, to ride together on buses through the American South. Why was this a dangerous and revolutionary action? With the South still in the clenches of Jim Crow laws and etiquette, CORE’s mission was to test a recent Supreme Court decision, Morgan v. Virginia (1946), which had actually struck down segregation on interstate bus travel. This so-called “Journey of Reconciliation” in 1947, a critical precursor to the more known Freedom Rides of the 1960s, lasted two weeks. Throughout that time, riders tried 26 different seating arrangements on various buses across Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Riders were arrested during six of those attempts.

On April 13, 1947, on the last leg of the trip departing from Chapel Hill, NC to Greensboro, NC, four riders (including CORE treasurer Bayard Rustin) were arrested after being attacked by an angry mob. They were tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve 30 days on a chain gang. With their appeal to the Supreme Court denied, three of the Riders surrendered at the Hillsborough Courthouse in March of 1949 to serve their sentence on segregated chain gangs in Roxboro, NC.

75th Anniversary Events

• Keeping Your Seat to Take a Stand: Sarah Keys Evans & the Fight Against Jim Crow Transportation | On Aug. 1, 1952, six years after the landmark Morgan v. Virginia case in 1946, five years after the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation set out to test its decision, and three years before the better known Montgomery Bus Boycott, 22-year-old Washington, NC native Sarah Keys, a Women’s Army Corps private, was wrongfully arrested in Roanoke Rapids, NC for refusing to relinquish her seat to a white man on an interstate charter bus. Yet, Sarah Keys refused to be intimidated, both that night and throughout the years to come. She saw her case through as it was brought before the Interstate Commerce Commission, with another trailblazer, Dovey Johnson Roundtree, as her lawyer. Finally, in 1955, in the landmark case Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, the ICC favored Mrs. Keys Evans, ruling that the Interstate Commerce Act forbids segregation. Join Carolina K-12, the North Caroliniana Society, and the Sarah Keys Evans Inclusive Public Art Project to explore the courageous actions of Mrs. Sarah Keys Evans with top scholars & community historians. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE RECORDING!
• The 1947 Journey of Reconciliation: A Long Road to Justice (Fri. May 20) | Click here to listen to an interview about the event
• See also the Chapel Hill Community History website for event details and related resources.

Funding for these events was provided by Humanities for the Public Good, an initiative at UNC-CH’s College of Arts & Sciences.

Visit Chapel Hill’s Bus Shelter in Commemoration of the Journey

Art + Transit aims to bring more artistic vibrancy to the daily commute and enliven unsuspecting spaces throughout Chapel Hill. As such, since 2018, Art + Transit has been commissioning Triangle-based artists to create art for many bus shelters around Chapel Hill and Carrboro. As part of this initiative, Art + Transit will be commemorating the Journey of Reconciliation at the bus shelter at the Rosemary Street & Columbia Street parking lot. The installation will be completed the week of April 11. 

Teach About the Journey & Related History

• The 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, lesson plan by Carolina K-12
  
• The Freedom Rides of 1961, lesson plan by Carolina K-12
• Martin Luther King & the Montgomery Story, curriculum accompaniment to FOR’s 1947 comic book
• Jim Crow and Algorithms of Resistance, searchable database of NC Jim Crow laws from UNC University Libraries, with a teaching guide & other accompanying curriculum by Carolina K-12
• Carolina K-12’s Teaching Hard History Initiative (includes in-person & virtual programming; an Introductory Module for Teaching Hard History is available here.)

Learn More About the Journey & Related History

• The Journey of Reconciliation in North Carolina (summary from Orange Politics)
• The Journey of Reconciliation: The Freedom Rides in Chapel Hill (summary and primary sources from UNC’s Southern Historical Collection)
• A report on twenty-two days on the chain gang at Roxboro, North Carolina, account by Bayard Rustin
• Oral History Interview w/ Igal Roodenko, participant in 1947 Journey of Reconciliation (4-minute excerpt)
• You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow (documentary & supplemental information regarding the history & film; a 9-minute excerpt featuring the Chapel Hill, NC leg of the rip is available here.)
• Journey of Reconciliation NC Highway Historical Marker
• Brother Outsider, The Life of Bayard Rustin (film)
• SNCC Digital Gateway (primary sources & multi-media timeline of SNCC activities, including the Journey)
• Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Rides (2021 program recording)
• The Chapel Hill Town Council proclaimed Wednesday, April 13, 2022, as the Journey of Reconciliation Day of Remembrance. Watch the proclamation here.

Sponsoring Organizations of Commemoration Planning & Events

The Community Church of Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill Public Library

University Presbyterian Church

The 18th Judicial District of North Carolina

Carolina K-12

Orange County Community Remembrance Coalition

Humanities for the Public Good