Claudette Colvin, whose 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama, bus helped spark the modern civil rights movement, has died. She was 86.
Colvin was arrested months before Rosa Parks gained international fame before refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
A bus driver called police on March 2, 1955, to complain that two Black girls were sitting near two White girls in violation of segregation laws. One of the Black girls moved toward the rear when asked, a police report said, but Colvin refused and was arrested. She was 15 at the time.
Sad that Rosa Parks took her thunder, but I guess it was necessary.
The whole thing with Rosa Parks is sad, but also a brilliant lesson for anyone trying to effect real political change.
For those who don’t know about this, Parks didn’t just spontaneously decide not to give up her seat one day. Rather, she was an activist with the civil rights movement who volunteered to deliberately recreate Claudette’s spur of the moment act of defiance, because she had a background that was clean of any issues that might have been used to attack her character, so she could more easily be turned into a figurehead and cause celebre by the movement. Absolutely sucks that it’s necessary to think like that, but it was smart of them to do so, and very effective. Parks still made a huge sacrifice and deserves to be lionised as a hero, but I for one will always try to mention Claudette in the same breath.