WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
She Was 15, Dark-skinned and Omitted From the History Books
Claudette Colvin is an example for all of our daughters
Ask almost anyone about Rosa Parks, and they are likely to tell you without pause that she was the catalyst for the Montgomery Bus Boycott after refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man.
Most people learn about Parks in grade school as the light-complected, 42-year old seamstress who, after a hard day’s work in December 1955, refused to be relegated to second class citizenship when told by a white bus driver to move to the back of the bus so that a white person could take her seat.
Bus segregation was part of a host of Jim Crow laws that marginalized Black people by denying them their rights, including the right to vote, obtain paid employment, get loans, sit where they chose on buses and other opportunities. Arrest, fines, jail time, violence and death were consequences for defying such inhumane laws.
In Parks’ case, she was arrested and jailed for refusing to give up her seat. She would later become the face of the Civil Rights Movement for her courageous act.
I’ve taken public transportation via the city bus many times — to work, school, and stores. Like Parks, I’d…
