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.

Information provided by Florida Department of State.