Sarah Keys Evans was a civil rights activist and pioneer in the fight against segregation in public transportation. In 1952, while serving as a private in the Women's Army Corps, she boarded a bus in North Carolina and refused to give up her seat to a white Marine. This act of defiance occurred years before Rosa Parks' famous protest on a Montgomery bus.

Keys was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct, but she fought back by filing a lawsuit against the bus company. Her case, Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, ultimately led to a landmark ruling by the Interstate Commerce Commission that banned segregation on interstate buses.

Sarah Keys' courage and tenacity in challenging segregation helped pave the way for the larger civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Her story serves as a powerful reminder of the everyday actions of ordinary people that can lead to extraordinary change.