Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson Historic Marker
1601 S Martin Luther King Jr. BlvdTallahassee FL 32307
On May 26, 1956, Florida A&M University students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson were arrested in Tallahassee because they refused to give up their bus seats next to a white passenger. The students were harassed and a cross was burned in their front yard. This act of passive resistance rallied Tallahassee NAACP leaders Robert Saunders and the Reverend C.K. Steele, and FAMU students to initiate a boycott that ended segregation on the city buses.
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On May 26, 1956, Florida A&M University students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson were arrested in Tallahassee because they refused to give up their bus seats next to a white passenger. The students were harassed and a cross was burned in their front yard. This act of passive resistance rallied Tallahassee NAACP leaders Robert Saunders and the Reverend C.K. Steele, and FAMU students to initiate a boycott that ended segregation on the city buses.