Charlie Brady Hauser

Dr. Hauser described himself as the "second strike" against segregated travel in America for refusing to move to the back of a bus in 1947, the "first strike" being credited to Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, a black woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat to white passengers in 1944 led to a landmark United States Supreme Court decision more than 10 years before Rosa Parks.

He believed that he learned leadership skills while growing up on the farm because, as third oldest child, he had to help take care of his many younger siblings, while at the same time doing his chores and getting whatever education he could in what he called "this 'no stop sign' small segregated southern town."

He later said that he did not sit on the back seat of the bus that October day because he knew the Supreme Court had ruled that interstate passengers were not subject to state Jim Crow laws.

Promoted to Staff Sergeant, his exemplary service was recognized with a Good Conduct Medal, an Eastern Theater of Operations Ribbon, and Five Battle Stars.

For his refusal to move to the back of a Greyhound bus while traveling from Winston-Salem to his teaching job at West Virginia State College, Hauser was arrested and jailed.

In recalling this years later he said, "Like in the war as the bombs exploded and the possibility of death filled the air, I just concentrated on what I needed to focus on to survive."

A century before Rosa Parks' famous stand, and 90 years before that of Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, Graham was 24-year-old schoolteacher who was ejected from a horse drawn New York City streetcar because she was a woman of color.

Although a lifetime member of the N.A.A.C.P., Dr. Hauser resisted requests to take a more active role in the civil rights movement, preferring to contribute to the effort in his own way.