On June 22, 1954, 20-year-old Sarah Mae Flemming boarded a public bus. Fleming sat down in a seat near the “whites only” section. The bus driver ordered Flemming to move and she tried to get off the bus. The driver hit her in the stomach. With the aid of Civil Rights pioneer Modjeska Simkins and the NAACP, Flemming filed a lawsuit. On July 14, 1955, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled segregation of public buses unconstitutional. Flemming’s heroic actions desegregated Columbia’s city buses. Her case also helped support the Montgomery Bus Boycott following Rosa Parks’ arrest.