Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Most people are familiar with what happened to Rosa Parks, but not as many know that, nine months before that event, there was a similar one involving a teenager named Claudette Colvin. She, too, defied the bus driver when told to leave her seat so a white person could sit down. She, too was arrested. She, too, had various members of the leadership of the Black community work with her.

But that is where the similarities ended. Claudette's problem was that she was a teenager. As a teenager, she was not really the type of person the leadership wanted to focus on to push their agenda. Rosa Parks, on the other hand, was an adult, and she was considered more presentable for public relations purposes.

In other words, Claudette was basically not only a victim of racism (white racism), but was also a victim of ageism. A teenager was not considered to be as solid a foundation for a major legal and pr fight as would be an adult.

Claudette was 15 at the time of the incident. She was on a bus and, although there were seats open in the row she was in, a white person wanted her to be moved further back so she could take a seat and not have to sit next to or even across from a black person.

Yes, stupid and disgusting, but that's the way things were back in Alabama at that time.

Various details of the times are given, including the fact that, in Alabama, no professional jobs were really open to blacks other then being the pastor of a church, or being a schoolteacher in an all-black school.

The bus set-up was itself a strange ritual, especially in Montgomery where this all took place.

1. Whites would pay and sit down. Blacks would pay, then have to get off the bus, go to the back door, and then enter that and sit down in the black section.

2. Each bus had 36 seats. The first four rows were for whites only. No blacks could sit in them even all the seats were empty.

3. The middle section was sort of a temporary seating area for blacks. If whites filled up the first ten seats, and there were blacks sitting in the middle section, then the bus driver would make the blacks get up and move further back in the bus so the whites could take the middle section. Blacks had to alway sit behind where the whites set.

The author talks about other ways in which stores, etc, were segregated, and there are lots of photos in the book.

The book then goes into the famous Montgomery bus boycott, including the violence (including bombs) used against the blacks and anyone who supported them.

This is an excellent examination of just how strong segregation and prejudice were at that time. It's important for people to understand just how bad things were and that some progress has been made, but more still needs to be done before prejudice and racism are eliminated.

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