Now 85-years-old and living in Brooklyn, N.Y., Keys Evans (her married name) said her thoughts about the incident have not changed. She seemed as defiant as she was 62 years ago when she wore a Women's Army Corps uniform and sat in what she thought was her rightful seat, but one the bus driver contended it was not and consequently had her arrested.
Driver Fighter Key
"My father said when you purchased a ticket, make sure the bus goes straight through; one with no stops (changes)," said Keys Evans, who completed integrated basic training at Fort Lee. "In other words, you wouldn't be hassled by the driver."
The bus, however, did make a stop to change drivers, and the new driver demanded Keys Evans relinquish her seat to a Marine. It was after midnight, the bus was filled with passengers and Keys Evans had been riding for hours. To say the least, she lacked the motivation to play the part of an inferior.
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT Series alongside Naoki Yamamoto, with whom he shared a Honda racing car at Team Kunimitsu.
Following the withdrawal of Honda from the sport in December 2008, Button was left without a team for the 2009 season. In February 2009, Ross Brawn led a management buyout of Honda, creating Brawn GP and recruiting Button as a driver. Button went on to win a record-equalling six of the first seven races of the 2009 season, securing the World Drivers' Championship at the Brazilian Grand Prix, having led on points all season; his success also helped Brawn GP to secure the World Constructors' Championship.
Button was born on 19 January 1980 in Frome, Somerset and brought up in nearby Vobster, Mells.[1] He is the fourth child of the half-South African Simone Lyons and former rallycross driver John Button from London's East End, who was well known in the United Kingdom during most of the 1970s for racing his Volkswagen Type 1, which was nicknamed the Colorado Beetle.[2] Jenson's parents met in Newquay at a young age and were reunited after a musical concert at Longleat. According to John, Jenson was named after his Danish friend and rallycross opponent Erling Jensen, changing the "e" to an "o" to differentiate it from Jensen Motors, while Simone recalls that she named him Jenson after noticing a Jensen sports car and thought the change of spelling would be "more mannish".[3]
Button's father gave him a 50cc bike for his seventh birthday; he discarded it after half an hour because it lacked speed, which would have required his father to remove its restrictor,[9] and he disliked his father's idea of progressing to the 80cc category. John talked to rallycross driver and Ripspeed car accessories owner Keith Ripp at an Earl's Court racing car show about his son; Kipp recommended the purchase of a Zip go-kart suited for the newly formed Cadets class for eight to twelve year-old karters for the young boy. Button received the kart as a Christmas present in 1987 and he began karting at the Clay Pigeon Raceway in May 1988 aged eight following repeated questions by club members to his father on when Button would start racing.[a][12]
Button was fourth in the 1994 RAC British Junior Championship after losing the opportunity to claim the title through a series of accidents. He joined the Birel team for that year's Junior Intercontinental A European Championship and raced as a professional in the Junior Intercontinental A Italian Winter Championship.[22][23] He was the youngest runner-up of the Formula A World Championship at age 15.[24] Button was signed to drive Tecno-Rotax karts for Team GKS, coming fifth in the 1996 European Formula A Championship, third in the Formula A World Cup,[22][25] and third in the American Championship.[23] In 1997, he was moved to the top-level of karting Formula Super A by his team.[22] Button won the Ayrton Senna Memorial Cup for finishing second in the 1997 Japanese World Cup,[22][26] and became the youngest driver and first Briton to claim the European Super A Championship.[14][26] He also was runner-up in the Winter Cup before the European Super A Championship.[23]
Aged 18, Button moved into single seater car racing after his mentor Paul Lemmens spoke to racing manager and former driver Harald Huysman about him.[25] He was signed to businessman David Robertson and Huysman's managerial stable, who found him sponsorship to continue driving.[b][28] Robertson wanted Button to test a Carlin Motorsport Dallara F3 Mugen-Honda car at the Pembrey Circuit and quickly became acclimatised with a more powerful vehicle and extra downforce. Huysman and Robertson wanted Button to enter Formula Three (F3) but Button said he could not do so with his inexperience in car racing and did not want to enter the category for fear of immediately being uncompetitive. Button instead moved to Formula Ford for the 1998 season.[29] He took the British Formula Ford Championship in a Haywood Racing Mygale SJ98 car with nine victories and won the season-ending Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch.[24][30] Button also finished runner-up in the European Formula Ford Championship with one victory from four races.[31]
At the end of 1998, Button won the annual Autosport BRDC Award, which included a test in a McLaren MP4/14 F1 car that he received in November 1999.[32][33] Huysman and Robertson sought a seat for him in F3 and spoke to Promatecme team owner Serge Saulnier, who did not want to sign Button because he was not part of Renault's driver academy. Additional lobbying from Mygale and Lemmens convinced Sauliner to give Button a test at the Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours in France. He impressed Saulnier and accepted his offer to drive at Promatecme. Salunier taught Button on the downforce of F3 cars and how to maintain it.[34]
In November 1999, Button had his McLaren test prize at the Silverstone club circuit in a MP4/13 car and impressed team owner Ron Dennis. He also tested for the Prost team at the Circuit de Catalunya after the team owner Alain Prost was impressed by Button's ability and asked him to test.[9][28][32] Prost offered Button a drive at his F3000 squad before becoming his F1 team's test driver for one season to prepare for competitive driving. He did not commit because Prost had not prepared to fulfill the promise of a F1 seat.[40] Huysman and Robertson declined Dennis' offer for Button to join the McLaren team and a seat from Jaguar chairman Jackie Stewart.[41]
A vacant race seat became available at the Williams team, following the departure of two-time CART champion Alessandro Zanardi. Other contenders for the seat included sports car driver Jörg Müller and Japanese Formula Three champion Darren Manning.[42] On 24 December 1999, team founder and principal Frank Williams telephoned Button,[43] who first thought it a joke,[42] and asked whether he was ready to drive in F1 to which he said no. Button's father instructed him to tell Williams he was indeed ready.[43] Button talked with Williams and BMW motorsport director Gerhard Berger and a 'shoot-out' test was arranged between Button and F3000 racer and test driver Bruno Junqueira at Jerez in a Williams FW21B car modified by being fitted with an BMW engine.[44][44][43] with Button securing the drive, even though the majority of the team's engineers preferred Junqueira.[42][32] This made him Britain's youngest ever F1 driver, beating the previous record held by Stirling Moss.[45][14] Button did not hold a FIA Super Licence and the FIA president Max Mosley required him to complete 300 km (190 mi) on two consecutive days of testing and support from 18 of the 26 members of the F1 Commission.[46] The FIA chose to issue him with a super licence regardless.[47] Button worked with a physiotherapist to help build his strength to drive an F1 car.[48]
A sixth-place finish at the season's second race in Brazil made him the youngest driver in history to score a point.[d][36] In his first six races, he qualified higher than his teammate Ralf Schumacher twice, and was consistently close in pace.[50][51] However, Williams had intended to use Button only until they could exercise their option to buy the highly rated Juan Pablo Montoya out of his contract at Chip Ganassi Racing.[52] A dip in Button's form, combined with Montoya's victory in the 2000 Indianapolis 500, led to Montoya being announced as his replacement midway through the season. Williams chose not to sell Button's contract, keeping the right to recall him in 2003. He went to Benetton Formula on a two-year loan.[53]
For 2001, Button partnered experienced driver Giancarlo Fisichella at Benetton, which had recently been purchased by Renault. His car was very uncompetitive due to a lack of power steering and horsepower to the faster teams coupled with a lack of pre-season testing and he was consistently outperformed by his teammate.[54][55] He finished 17th in the Drivers' Championship with a total of two points scored; his best result was a fifth-place finish at the German Grand Prix.[30] His poor form led to speculation he would be replaced before the end of the year;[54] team principal Flavio Briatore said, "Either he shows he's super-good or he leaves the top echelon of drivers",[56] and reportedly offered him the chance to leave.[57] Briatore believed Button's inexperience showed as he struggled to help his team set up a competitive car.[57] His lack of success combined with an extravagant lifestyle led some press publications to dub him a "playboy".[58]
At the season's second race in Malaysia, he was set for his first podium before a rear suspension problem on the final lap dropped him to fourth place. Button's performances were greatly improved from 2001 because his car had power steering and launch control; although often outqualified by Trulli, he showed the faster race pace to outscore his more experienced teammate. Despite Button's performances, and his desire to stay with Renault, he was told by Briatore by telephone that test driver Fernando Alonso would replace him in 2003.[63] Briatore faced criticism for his decision, but stated "time will tell if I am wrong";[63] he would also accuse Button of being a "lazy playboy".[10] In July, Button signed a two-year contract with a two-year option for British American Racing (BAR) with the option for a further two years after that to replace the outgoing Olivier Panis,[64] partnering 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve, after discussions with several teams fell through. An important factor in his decision was the chance to work with David Richards, the BAR team principal, and he was impressed with the team's long-term programme.[60][65] He finished the season seventh with 14 points.[36] 2ff7e9595c
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