Claudette Colvin spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement in the United States with her arrest on March 2, 1955. She protested the segregation of buses in Montgomery, Alabama. This led to the Supreme Court ruling that ended bus segregation in Alabama. Claudette Colvin’s young age and big personality kept the NAACP from turning her into the symbol that Rosa Parks became.
Young Life
Claudette Colvin was born on September 5, 1939 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her adoptive parents C. P. Colvin, a lawn mower, and Mary Anne Colvin, a maid, lived in an impoverished black neighborhood. In Twice Toward Justice, Phillip Hoose’s biography of Claudette Colvin, she recounts a time at four years old when she spoke to a couple of white boys in a retail store with her mother. The boys asked to compare hands. Her mother saw her about to touch hands and she slapped her in the face and told her she could not touch them.
Protest and Arrest
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[[[Fueled with the knowledge of the current civil rights movement, Claudette Colvin felt compelled to draw attention to her case.]]] Local community leaders determined it would be better to wait. Rosa Parks was famously arrested on December 1, 1955, for refusing to move and she became the NAACP’s face of the civil rights movement. A few key reasons exist for why the NAACP chose Rosa Parks over Claudette Colvin. Colvin’s young age of 15 made her seem more immaturely defiant to the public eye. Colvin’s family came from a very poor background and Parks fell into the middle class. Colvin’s skin was much darker than Parks. Rosa Parks already held a key position of respect with African-American politicians. But most importantly, Colvin became pregnant several months after her arrest by a much older man. [[[[The NAACP did not feel an unmarried pregnant teenager could positively represent their cause.]]]]
The Case of Browder v.
During a crowded afternoon bus ride, "I decided I wasn't gonna take it anymore… After the other students got up, there were three empty seats in my row, but that white woman still wouldn't sit down-not even across the aisle from me…blacks had to be behind whites… 'Why are you still sittin' there?'"(Hoose 32). Initiating the Civil Rights Movement, Claudette Colvin refused to stand for a white lady when there was an empty row next to her. Claudette's bravery sparked a fire within the black community, & they attempted to keep her name in the papers. Through the short bout of fame, “The news that a schoolgirl had been arrested for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger flashed through Montgomery’s black community and traveled far beyond,”(Hoose 39).
The bus driver demanded her to get up from the seat and she still refused, saying she paid her fare and it was her constitutional right. The NAACP received a large number of letters saying how brave Colvin was to refuse her seat. Secretary of the NAACP Rosa Parks reviewed the letters and incepted by the NAACP to become the spokesperson of the NAACP's bus boycott and Anti-Segregation movement. I honestly had never heard of Claudette Colvin until watching the Drunk History video. The added humor
This demonstrates the way she was mistreated and looked down on despite her remarkable talent and intelligence. If she had been a white man, she would probably be constantly
No lunches were provided, her parents had to bring her lunch. She was pretty active in sports, went to Hahnville high school 8 miles from where she lived, the buses were also segregated but new schools were built for George Washington, she didn’t go to school with white kids. Graduated from high school in 1955. After that she couldn’t get any jobs, so her mom paid to get public bus transportation, it was a private bus, but that was segregated too, Gloria went to New Orleans to get typing classes. She had nine siblings, parents only had elementary education, and her mom did a lot of sowing for white people and did all our clothes.
Angela Davis mother and father taught their daughter that “the hostility between blacks and whites was not preordained “her mother was involved in antiracism movements while she attended
On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, on a bus, Rosa Parks said “no”. Parks was arrested because she refused to vacate her seat in the white section on the bus. Just like Parks, many blacks were arrested and even killed in response to civil rights. There were many bombings too. On October 12, 1958, fifty sticks of dynamite exploded in a church.
During the formation of a new nation, the government is founded upon one of four theories. The theory that most prominently influenced America's framers was the social contract theory, which can be described as a population in a state of nature giving up as much power to a government as needed to promote the wellbeing of all. To this end, the founding fathers endorsed Philosopher John Locke’s theory that since the government derives its power from its people, citizens are entitled to replace their government if their natural rights are violated. Therefore, during the American Revolution, American colonists were justified to utilize civil disobedience against British policies. Similarly, in modern times, citizens are still justified to practice their obligation explained in the Declaration of Independence that “whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation . . .
Separate but Unequal: The Fight to End Desegregation Segregation is the act or practice of setting groups of people apart from each based on the pigment of their skin, which is unjust and immoral. A man needs food, water, shelter, and medicine, regardless if they are black or white. In the United States after the Civil War, American society was segregated. Segregation of public places such as restaurants, buses, and schools were allowed. The separating of black and white has caused many problems in society and these inequalities are still felt today.
In Anne Moody’s autobiography, Coming of Age in Mississippi, she discusses the hardships that “negroes” faced during a time when segregation was prevalent. Anne Moody, or Essie Mae, as she was often referred to in the book, was a black rights activist. Certain events lead her to be such a strong advocate for African Americans. Her first memory of being separated from white people was at the movie theatre. Children were the last to see color, so they did not realize how sternly the segregation was enforced.
The author of the Rosa Parks page emphasizes that, “By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks (1913—2005) helped initiate the civil rights movement in the United States” (Rosa Parks). Simply put, Rosa inspired the rest of the African American communities around the United States to protest through boycotts whenever they had the chance to do so. Determined to get the bus segregation law overturned, Parks and her fellow NAACP
Rosa parks follows another woman, Claudette Colvin. Claudette did do exactly the same thing as Rosa, but she was pregnant at the time so the NAACP though she didn’t have the ability to stand up on her own. Colvin, Parks, Lafayette, Emeagwali, Fuller, Malcolm X, and Bridges are just a couple of the great african-american heroes. Rosa Parks is a influence on all people. She shows everyone that if they stand up in what the believe in they can do all things, even if there are consequences.
Her tragedy reflects not only the sexism in the African American families in early 20th century, but also the uselessness
When Rosa Parks got an arrest, it had started a resolution. When Rosa didn't get up from her seat for a white man, the driver called the police and arrested her. So at her court date, the African Americans had started a boycott. The Africans have to seat in the back of the bus in the colored section. Because Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man; she started a revolution and the fight for equal rights for black people.
(Younge, Samuel Leamon, Jr.) Rosa Parks made a path for activists, and Samuel Younge took that rocky path. “There were protests when white officials intentionally refused to indict Marvin Segrest, the person who killed Younge.” (Chandler,
Also Rosa was a civil right activist before her arrest. The bus driver how Parks had prior encounter with was James Blake he also demanded that she vacate her seat. But the other problem is that she was not sitting in the only white people area she was sitting in the middle of the bus in those days most people rode in cars or walked and so when Rosa boycotted the bus she was not sitting there because her feet were tired. Weeks after her arrest Parks was jailed a second time for her role in the boycott.