Dignified Defiance: The Ellen Harris Story

Dignified Defiance: The Ellen Harris Story
By Stella Adams

In Durham, NC on February 12, 1938, Harris refused to move to the back of the bus, this is the story of how she won her case before the North Carolina Supreme Court and sued the bus company for damages.

February 12, 1938 was a typical winter day in Durham, NC., when Ellen Harris entered the bus, paid her fare, and took a seat in the rear of the bus just in front of the last row which seated 5 people.

Ms. Harris was riding home on a bus owned and operated by Durham Public Service Company. This was a bus that would hold 25 passengers, 5 rows on either side of the aisle and 5 passengers in the rear of the bus.

As the bus was traveling along its route, Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Jones entered the bus and Mrs. Jones took the only vacant seat left except for the seat beside the defendant and the long seat at the back of the bus.

According to the testimony of Mr. Jones, "She was on the bus when I got on. She was seated on the last seat except the long seat in the back. When I got on the bus there was room for one passenger besides my wife excepting the long seat at the back. When we entered the bus my wife took a seat about middle way up, which left only the long seat close to the rear and then the half seat beside the defendant.

There was room for me to sit down there. There was no available seat across the aisle from where the defendant was sitting." He then demanded that Ms. Harris move to the long seat at the back of the bus. Ms. Harris refused to leave her seat.

The bus driver came back and again demanded that she sit on the rear seat. She refused but offered to get off the bus if her fare was refunded. (State v. Harris,1938) Instead of refunding her fare, the bus driver had Ms. Harris arrested for violating segregation laws.
The warrant says that

"Ellen Harris, on or about 12 February, 1938, with force and arms, at and in the county aforesaid, and within Durham County, did unlawfully, maliciously and unlawfully occupy a certain seat in the front part of a bus operated by the Durham Public Service Company, and did then and there fail and
refuse to move from said seat when requested to do so by the operator of said bus, against the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State.” (State v. Harris, 1938).

Ms. Harris was represented by two Black attorneys Caswell Jerry
“
C. J. Gates and Edward Richard Avant.(Jones, 2014) Ms. Harris was tried and convicted in Recorder’s Court and fined $10.00. She appealed her case to the Superior Court.

The local prosecutor amended the charge once it was appealed to say
“that Ellen Harris, on or about 12February, 1938, with force and arms, at and in the county aforesaid, and within Durham County, that the said Ellen Harris did then and there unlawfully and willfully enter and occupy a seat in a bus operated for hire by the Durham Public Service Company, which seat was not the first seat nearest the rear of said bus that was vacant at the time and unoccupied, she, the said Ellen Harris, being a colored person, did unlawfully, maliciously and unlawfully occupy a certain seat in the front part of a bus operated by the Durham Public Service Company, and did then and there fail and refuse to move from said seat when requested to do so by the operator of said bus, against the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the State (State v. Harris, 1938).

She received a trial by jury presided over by Superior Court Judge C. L. Williams and was again convicted, Gates and Avant immediately appealed her case to the North Carolina Supreme Court where it was heard Judge J. Carson.

The case turned on the term "willfully”
Judge Carson wrote that
“Criminal statutes are to be construed strictly. Under the facts and circumstances of this case, we do not think the defendant intended to willfully violate the provisions of this act”
and reversed her conviction (State v. Harris, 1938).Ellen Harris did not stop there, one month after being found innocent of the criminal charges, Ms. Harris and her attorneys filed a $15,000 civil lawsuit against Durham Public Services Company. $15,000 in 1938equals $271,327.08 in 2021.
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The record shows that she settled her case with Durham Public Services for an undisclosed amount and locally it was considered quite a victory (Jones, 2014).Ellen Harris’ story deserves to be celebrated for her victories against transit discrimination in the south eighteen years before the Montgomery bus boycotts changed the nation.

Works Cited
Jones, A. N. (2014). The "Old Black Corporate Bar: Durham's Wall Street 1898-1971.
92 N.C. L. Rev. 1831Scholarly Repository @ Campbell University School of Law
.

State v. Harris, 213 N.C. 758, 197 S.E. 594 (1938) (North Carolina Supreme Court March 1938).

Source: https://www.academia.edu/.../Dignified_Defiance_The_Ellen...