—From an editorial in the Montgomery Advertiser, January 1957 AS THE COURTROOM was being cleared of spectators, the three robed men went into Judge Johnson’s chambers, shut the door, and sat down. No one said anything for a while. Then Judge Rives said to Johnson, “Frank, you’re the junior judge here. You vote first. What do you think?” Johnson replied, “Judge, as far as I’m concerned, state-imposed segregation on public facilities [the buses] violates the Constitution. I’m going to rule with the plaintiffs here.” Justice Rives quickly agreed. Justice Lynne didn’t. “The [Supreme] Court has already spoken on this issue in Plessy versus Ferguson,” he insisted. “It’s the law and we’re bound by it until it’s changed.” But Lynne was outnumbered. By a 2–1 decision a federal court abolished segregated seating on Montgomery’s—and Alabama’s—buses. As Judge Johnson later said, “The testimony of . . . Miss Colvin and the others reinforced the Constitution’s position that you can’t abridge the freedoms of the individual.
