A new children’s book tells the story of a young woman whose stand against racial injustice helped change the course of history.
In 1952, while serving in the Women’s Army Corps, Sarah Keys Evans was arrested at a North Carolina bus station for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger — an act of courage that occurred three years before Rosa Parks’s historic stand in Montgomery, Ala. Evans’s decision to challenge her arrest led to the landmark case Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, which struck down segregation in interstate bus travel.
“Sarah Keys Evans: The Power of Quiet Courage” was written by Amy Nathan in collaboration with Sarah Keys Evans. She first interviewed Evans in 2004 after seeing a plaque about her at the Military Women’s Memorial. The book was illustrated by Jermaine Powell, a North Carolina based mixed-media artist and muralist.
The book, published by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History introduces upper elementary and middle school readers to an often-overlooked chapter in North Carolina and American history.
Sarah Keys Evans: The Power of Quiet Courage is available now through UNC Press.
