This is Claudette Colvin. Did you know at age 15, on March 2nd, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, she refused to give up her seat to a white woman? Colvin was motivated by what she had been learning in school about African American history and the U.S. Constitution. Note that this action took place just days after Negro History Week. This was 9 months before Rosa Parks in December, but because of respectability politics and Ms. Parks complexion white media outlets made a concerted effort to credit Rosa Parks as the mother of the civil rights movement. This is no fault of Ms. Rosa Parks, but this is the world we live in. And this is our history. Did you know a day after her arrest they staged a photoshoot where she is sitting in front of a white man on a bus? There are some protests and protesters deemed more acceptable by the powers that be I guess. And one could surmise that psychologically seeing a 15-year-old child refusing this “law” might be too inspiring for the civil rights movement youth. But I digress…Mary Louise Smith, a darker complected teenager at 18 also did the same a 40 days before Ms. Parks in October. Let’s put in context the torture, mutilation, and murder of a 14 year old Emmitt Till also happened in that same year in August 1955. You might see a pattern of history still repeating itself.
enemies too.