This Little-Known Civil Rights Activist Refused to Give Up His Bus Seat Four Years Before Rosa Parks Did

A 1959 photograph of William "W.R." Saxon, who is standing third from left Statesville Record and Landmark via Newspapers.com In May 1951, William “W.R.” Saxon stepped aboard a Smoky Mountain Stages Inc. bus in Atlanta with his ticket grasped tightly in his hand. Bound for his home in the Southside neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina, the Black insurance agent was no stranger to the pervasive Jim Crow…