Worth County, Georgia (September 27, 1942 -April 19, 2007) age 64 yrs

Ola Mae Quarterman, one of the unsung heroes of the civil rights era. On January 12, 1962, at age 16, she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Albany, Georgia. As a result, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail. The white bus driver told her to move to the back of the bus. She responded, “I paid my damn ten cents and I’ll sit where I please.” Shortly afterward Dr. Martin Luther King came to town to join a campaign that was starting to brew. Ola Mae was expelled from her school and all hell broke loose in Albany, Georgia. In some sense she was not supported by her own people and ended up in despair and depression. She will always be remembered as a catalyst of change, challenging this backwards system.