He quickly organized a free-ride system to offer car transportation to the city's black residents while the boycott was in effect.

In 1950, Baton Rouge had ended black-owned buses, thereby requiring all city residents to use the public transit system that enforced segregated seating.

[6] It was racially segregated by law; in practice, black citizens had to sit at the back half of the bus or stand, even if seats in the front "white" section were empty.

Jemison said later he was struck by "watching buses pass by his church and seeing black people standing in the aisles, not allowed by law to sit down in seats reserved for whites.

Jemison took up the issue with the Baton Rouge City Council; he testified on February 11, 1953 against the fare increase and asked for an end of the practice of reserving so many seats for whites.

[7] In actuality though, the white drivers largely ignored the ordinance and continued to pressure and harass blacks into sitting in the rear of the buses.

They quickly set up a massive private carpool network of free rides to assist residents boycotting public transit.

[7] Although the boycott did not abolish segregated buses in Baton Rouge, it did force concessions that resulted in more total seats for black passengers.

[11] In his book Stride Toward Freedom (1958), King wrote that Jemison's "painstaking description of the Baton Rouge experience proved invaluable.

"[12] In Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch referred to Jemison as King's "old friend and first adviser as a protest leader".

During his tenure, Jemison led the NBC USA into liberal political activism by supporting the presidential candidacy of Rev.

Jesse Jackson in 1984 and 1988; speaking out against the nomination of Clarence Thomas, a conservative African American as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court; and objecting to U.S. intervention in the Gulf War.

He publicly defended boxer Mike Tyson who was charged in 1991 with the rape of Desiree Washington, a contestant in the Miss Black America beauty pageant.

He was cited posthumously for his pioneering work in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and his pastorate of the Mount Zion First Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.