Claudette Colvin a Pioneer for Integration
When discussing the Montgomery Boycotts, most people immediately think of Rosa Parks. However, there is another notable person who deserves our gratitude; a 15-year-old by the name of Claudette Colvin (formerly Austin) had refused to give up her seat to a white woman 9 months prior to Rosa Parks.
Claudette Colvin
September 5th 1939
Photo source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin
When discussing the Montgomery Boycotts, most people immediately think of Rosa Parks. However, there is another notable person who deserves our gratitude; a 15-year-old by the name of Claudette Colvin (formerly Austin) had refused to give up her seat to a white woman 9 months prior to Rosa Parks.
She credits her courage to being inspired by the stories of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Her righteous indignation regarding the treatment of black people drove her to no longer yield to the racist expectation that a black person must give up their seat for a white person.
Respectability politics is the blame for Colvin’s erasure. She was a teenager who was impregnated by a married man so her legacy was seen as a ‘liability’ to the Civil Rights Movement.
Knowing Colvin’s story is so important to me because she is a living breathing example that we all have the capacity to lead a movement and confront injustice. Her story also highlights the need for us no longer segment leaders; cutting them into easily digestible pieces for the sake of respectability and appeasing the very ones who oppress us. It is a disservice to us to discount the legacies of those who have helped pave the way for our rights. It is a disservice to us to toss away essential parts of our own history.
Claudette Colvin, we honor you.
Receipts (aka Sources)
https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/stories-43171799
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudette_Colvin
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose
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