Claudette Colvin is a pioneer of the 1950s civil rights movement and retired nurse aide. On March 2, 1955, she was arrested at the age of 15 in Montgomery, Alabama, for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus.
Colvin did not receive the same attention as Parks for a number of reasons: she did not have 'good hair', she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, she got pregnant. The leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the 'most appealing' protesters the most seen.
It was actually Claudette Colvin who first took the bus-related stand, inspiring Parks and Montgomery Bus Boycott that followed. Though inspired by Colvin they went with Rosa Parks because, as Colvin explained in an interview with NPR, "they thought I would be too militant for them."
YOU ARE READING
I'm Black yet GOLD
Non-FictionThis is a short book about four African American people you won't or might not learn in school.
