"I had left my work at the men's
alteration shop, a tailor shop in the Montgomery Fair department store,
and as I left work, I crossed the street to a drugstore to pick up a
few items instead of trying to go directly to the bus stop. And when
I had finished this, I came across the street and looked for a Cleveland
Avenue bus that apparently had some seats on it. At that time it was
a little hard to get a seat on the bus. But when I did get to the entrance
of the bus, I got in line with a number of other people who were getting
on the same bus.
As I got up on the bus and walked to the seat I saw
there was only one vacancy that was just back of where it was considered
the white section. So this was the seat that I took, next to the aisle,
and a man was sitting next to me. Across the aisle there were two women,
and there were a few seats at this point in the very front of the bus
that was called the white section. I went on to one stop and I didn't
particularly notice who was getting on the bus...And on the third stop
there were some people getting on, and at this point all of the front
seats were taken...and this one man was standing and when the driver
looked around and saw he was standing, he asked the four of us, the
man in the seat with me and the two women across the aisle, to let him
have those front seats.
At his first request, didn't any of us move, Then he
spoke again and said, ‘You'd better make it light on yourselves
and let me have those seats.' At this point, of course the passenger
who would have taken the seat hadn't said anything. In fact, he never
did speak to my knowledge. When the three people, the man who was in
the seat with me and the two women, stood up and moved into the aisle,
I remained where I was. When the driver saw that I was still sitting
there, he asked if I was going to stand up. I told him, no, I wasn't.
He said, ‘Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have you arrested,'
I told him to go on and have me arrested.'
He got off the bus and came back shortly. A few minutes
later two policemen got on the bus, and they approached me and asked
if the driver had asked me to stand up, and I said yes, and they wanted
to know why I didn't. I told them I didn't think I should have to stand
up...They placed me under arrest then and had me get in the police car,
and I was taken to jail."