As we know, we are transitioning into African American History Month. But, some of us are unaware of some important figures in history, one being Claudette Colvin, who took a stand just as Rosa Parks did, but received much less recognition. In 1955, Claudette tried to defy segregation laws nine months before Rosa Parks did.
Until she spoke about it recently, Claudette’s story was hardly recognized. Just like Rosa Parks, she refused to give up her seat on the bus and was arrested and fined, but she was only 15. Many believe that Rosa Parks was right to become the face of resistance to segregation over Colvin because most people didn’t want a teenager in the role. Additionally, Colvin became pregnant, and some thought that using a pregnant teenager would make people talk about the pregnancy more than the boycott.
At the time it was African American History Month, and at her school they had been studying black leaders like Harriet Tubman, the runaway slave who led more than 70 slaves to freedom. She remembers how it felt when the bus driver ordered her to get up. “My head was just too full of black history, you know, the oppression that we went through,” Colvin says. “Can you imagine all of that in my mind? It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.” She also remembers the moment the jail door closed. “And then I got scared, and panic came over me, and I started crying. Then I started saying the Lord’s Prayer,” she says.
Though Colvin has received a lot more recognition than Parks, she has gained some in the past years. A book about her life called Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, won the National Book Award in 2009. Colvin is still glossed over by history and there is hope that she and other important African Americans can be more known.