South Carolina H 3992: Sarah Mae Flemming, Black History Month honoree

Bill Text

2025-2026 Bill 3992 Text of Previous Version (Feb. 13, 2025) - South Carolina Legislature Online 

South Carolina General Assembly
126th Session, 2025-2026

Bill 3992

Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter

(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A house RESOLUTION

TO HONOR THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF PROMINENT 
AFRICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST SARAH MAE FLEMMING BROWN, A NATIVE OF 
EASTOVER.

Whereas, civil rights 
activist Sarah Mae Flemming was born in Eastover to Mack and Rosetta Flemming. 
At the age of 20, she worked as a housekeeper in nearby Columbia. On June 22, 
1954, Flemming boarded a bus run by the South Carolina Electric and Gas Company 
(SCE&G) at the corner of Main and Taylor streets in Columbia. The bus was 
crowded that day, with few seats available. Soon after she boarded, a white 
rider got up and exited the bus, and Flemming sat down in the vacated seat. The 
driver saw her sit down and verbally abused her, yelling at her to get up. 
Embarrassed, Flemming signaled to get off the bus. At the next stop, she 
attempted to follow two white women off the front of the bus, but before she 
could get off, the driver struck her in the abdomen and forced her to exit from 
the back of the bus; and

Whereas, with the 
assistance of South Carolina state NAACP secretary Modjeska Simkins, Flemming 
secured the representation of attorney Philip Wittenberg and sued SCE&G in 
federal district court for $25,000 in actual and punitive damages. An avowed 
segregationist, Judge George Bell Timmerman dismissed the case. In 1955, 
Flemming appealed to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that 
the principles in the recently decided Brown v. Board of Education 
decision, which ruled segregation in public schools unconstitutional, were also 
applicable to intrastate transportation. SCE&G appealed to the Supreme 
Court, which declined to hear the case, and it again came before Judge 
Timmerman in district court in 1956. Timmerman dismissed the case a second 
time, and Flemming appealed again to the appellate court, which again remanded 
it back to district court for trial. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund assisted with 
the appeals, and attorneys Lincoln Jenkins and Matthew Perry represented 
Flemming at trial. Finally in June 1957, Flemming had her case heard in court. 
Despite her description of the incident in her testimony, corroborated by 
witnesses, an all-white, all-male jury decided in favor of the bus company 
after only thirty minutes of deliberation; and

Whereas, although 
Flemming lost at trial, her case had a significant effect on desegregation of 
buses and civil rights law across the country. Her incident occurred seventeen 
months before the famous Rosa Parks case that sparked the Montgomery Bus 
Boycott. Attorneys in Browder v. Gayle, the lawsuit that ultimately 
ended the Montgomery Bus Boycott, cited the Fourth Circuit's decision in her 
case, Flemming v. SCE&G, as precedent. Flemming gave few public 
interviews about her experiences, but in 1956 she praised the Supreme Court for 
denying SCE&G's appeal and said, "As for myself, I never rode a city bus 
since they put me off, and I never will again"; and

Whereas, Sarah Mae 
Flemming was married to John Brown and was the mother of three children. She 
passed away on June 16, 1993, and was buried at Goodwill Baptist Church in 
Eastover, but her heroic act and determination lived on as a powerful example 
for individuals such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. as they continued 
the quest for justice and equality. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House 
of Representatives:

That the members of the South Carolina House of Representatives, by this resolution, honor 
the life and achievements of prominent African American civil rights activist 
Sarah Mae Flemming Brown, a native of Eastover.

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution 
be presented to the family of Sarah Mae Flemming Brown.

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This web page was last updated on February 13, 2025 at 11:33 AM