Honoring the Legacy:  Elport Chess and the Lanier High School Bus Boycott of 1947

by Wilma E. Mosley Clopton, Ph.D., video historian

Elport Chess was born December 31, 1922 to Ed and Alice Chess of Hermanville, Mississippi. At a young age, the family moved to Jackson, Mississippi. Before the age of 20, Elport was drafted into the military where he served in the Pacific, as a Marine, during World War II. At the end of the war, Elport returned home to Mississippi and to Lanier High School.

Like many students who lived in the Washington Addition area of Jackson, Mississippi, Elport Chess rode the #6 city bus to Lanier High School. There were no “yellow buses” for black children at that time. The #6 bus was specifically designated to transport African-American students to school.

One day, in the fall of the 1947 school year, the bus driver of the #6 bus decided to pick up a white woman and demanded that the already overcrowded bus load of students move back to accommodate her. The designated two-seat row for white passengers was located just behind the driver’s seat. Elport Chess was sitting in one of those seats. The bus driver asked Elport Chess to get up from the seat in order that the woman could sit down. He refused.

Like many black soldiers returning home from World War II where they had lived and died for the dignity of others, Elport could not understand why he could not be afforded the same kind of respect here, in the United States of America, which has been gained for others in Europe. So, he asked, “Why do I have to get up?” and he didn’t.

The bus driver then drove downtown, located a policeman and had Elport arrested. When the remaining students arrived at Lanier High School and told the story to the rest of the students, they decided to boycott the bus. This was the start of the Lanier Bus High School Boycott of 1947.

Beginning in 1944, black soldiers returning home from World War II began to systematically challenge the Jim Crow system which existed throughout the United States. Black soldiers from Mississippi marched on Washington, D.C. and testified in court to challenge the illegal voting system in Mississippi. In 1947, Elport Chess joined the ranks of other unsung heroes by standing up against indignity. He refused to give up his seat and challenged the segregated bus system which was in place in Mississippi at that time. Together, Elport Chess along with other black veterans of World War II helped usher in the age of the Civil Rights Movement upon whose shoulders later activities stood.

We are asking you to support our efforts to enlist the City Council of Jackson, Mississippi to name the new JATRAN building in honor of this unsung hero. We need to recognize the strong people of color who actively fought for the rights of all people to be free here in Mississippi. Where one mind is enslaved, no mind is free.