On May 26, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, two Florida A&M University students, were arrested by the Tallahassee Police Department for "placing themselves in a position to incite a riot".

[2]: 36  On January 7, 1957, the City Commission repealed the bus-franchise segregation clause because of the United States Supreme Court ruling Browder v. Gayle (1956).

The driver would not return Jakes' bus fare and drove to a service station, where he then called the police, who subsequently arrested the women.

Reverend Steele, a member of the Tallahassee Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance (IMA) and leader in the NAACP, organized a mass meeting that night.

In the meeting, the Inter-Civic Council (ICC) was born from the joining of the NAACP, IMA, and Tallahassee Civic League.

For months after Browder v. Gayle, the government upheld de facto segregation, with the instantiation of an ordinance mandating assigned seats on buses.