RALEIGH — A new children’s book, “Sarah Keys Evans: The Power of Quiet Courage,” brings to life the inspiring story of a young woman whose brave stand against racial injustice helped change the course of history.
The book, published by the North Carolina Office of Archives and History, part of the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, introduces upper elementary and middle school readers to an often-overlooked chapter in North Carolina and American history.
In 1952, while serving in the Women’s Army Corps, Sarah Keys Evans was arrested at a North Carolina bus station for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger — an act of courage that occurred three years before Rosa Parks’s historic stand in Montgomery, Alabama. Evans’s decision to challenge her arrest led to the landmark case Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company, which struck down segregation in interstate bus travel.
Evans wasn’t a person anyone thought would spend the night in a jail cell — or change the world, according to the book description. “Sarah Keys Evans: The Power of Quiet Courage” tells the story of how she stood up for what was right and helped end unfair treatment.
The book was written by Amy Nathan in collaboration with Sarah Keys Evans. Nathan, a graduate of Harvard who grew up in Baltimore, is an award-winning author of more than a dozen nonfiction books for young people and adults, including two on U. S. women in the military. She first interviewed Evans in 2004 after seeing a plaque about her at the Military Women’s Memorial. The72-page book was illustrated by Jermaine Powell, a North Carolina based mixed-media artist and muralist.
Sarah Keys Evans: The Power of Quiet Courage is available now through https://uncpress.org/
