Susie McDonald, known to other black people as Miss Sue at the time, was one of the plaintiffs in the bus segregation lawsuit Browder v. Gayle (1956).[1][2] She was arrested for violating bus segregation law on October 21, 1955.[3][4][5][6] She was a widow at the time, in her seventies, walked with a cane, and was light-skinned enough to be mistaken for white, though she enjoyed correcting this misconception.[7][8] Her husband Tom had done railroad work, and she received his pension.[9]
In the 1950s the McDonald family were the owners of a pavilion near Cleveland Avenue, known to black people as McDonald's Farm, where black people could go without fear of racist violence.[10] It may be that the McDonalds were able to buy the land in the 19th century because they were thought to be white.[11]
[[Category:20th-century African-American activists