This is Claudette Colvin. On March 2, 1955 she got arrested in Montgomery, Alabama for not giving up her seat on a bus to a white woman. This was 9 months before Rosa Parks and Claudette was only 15 years old. More people should know her story.
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Thank you so much for this story. I love history and this case, herstory. Yes it does need to be told. Thank you for telling it. I’m going to repost. This doesn’t diminish Rosa Parks’ protest, but still a great story.
There’s a movie coming out about here called Spark. Directed by Anthony Mackie and starring Saniyya Sidney (Venus Williams from King Richard). It’s based in the National Book Award winning “Twice Towards Justice” by Phil Hoose. It won in the young adult category, but it’s great read for anyone.
I love that JoAnn Robinson was an English professor. Her memoir on women organizing Montgomery bus boycott is spectacular. And, she made newsletter with type art. :)
There is so much energy, thoughtfulness, intelligence in this snippet.
Yes! They were such phenomenally talented organizers! Even from this snippet, you can imagine the pre-internet challenges of communicating, keeping everyone up-to-date, making the moment coherent to comrades, and helping people build together toward the future.
I did not know about her autobiography and I am so excited to read it. Even from what I do know, the organization, strategy, solidarity, and commitment to launch (50,000 photocopies at the teacher's college in the middle of the night!) and carry out A YEAR of 97% boycott is beyond my comprehension.
News letter image is from the National Humanities Center.
Here ⬇️ is the reprint of Chapter 2, "The Boycott Begins" from JoAnn Robinson's memoir, "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It," 1987.
i was just about to mention this... the civil rights movement was like a psy-op back in the day when it came to supporting protest as propaganda for black liberation. i think both Parks & Colvin both worked for the NAACP and their boycott was meticulously planned. it was no "romantic coincidence".
it wasnt a problem within the naacp and activist society tho... it was a strategy to gain as much sympathy & support from the apartheid-ruling class. this was not the enshrinement of a standard within the movement but a strategy of non-violent warfare. we shouldnt conflate the contexts of two eras.
Civil Rights Movement never gets enough credit for how successful they were at propaganda and media manipulation. And I don’t mean that like a bad thing, it was genius stuff
it was maligned in the 80s as being too soft (the dangers of erasure or revisionism when applying modern awarenesses to the past) ‐ but the NAACP was masterfully covert when needing to be and that is seldom referenced by modern activism.
in this case, context matters: this wasnt any mere spontaneous protest, the boycott organizers knew from the start that optics mattered in fighting america's legalized apartheid system. and the risk of injury to a young pregnant girl manhandled by police was very real. Parks was the right choice.
Yes but it is strategic to gain support for the cause, so I get it. Look at the plaintiff for the gay marriage case. Sympathetic story and it was over the inheritance tax! Hard for conservatives to argue against.
not teaching about her (and other efforts) also allows the lie to live that rosa parks was just tired and fed up that day, instead of being an activist and member of the NAACP - not to mention her anti-rape work and voters rights, etc
it encourages (white) people to believe protest is useless
Same thing was true when Major Leagues were integrated. Players like Satchell Page and especially Josh Gibson were passed over to be first because Robinson was seen as more acceptable being college educated and a tank officer.
Ironic he was court martialed for refusing to go to the back of a bus.
Wow... When being fifteen and pregnant actually just made her another form of victim. (Yes, I looked it up, and surprise surprise: Impregnated by, "an older, married man.")
When you examine how our present day media puts someone like George Floyd under the microscope and there's a chorus saying Floyd was a drug addict and got what he deserved you can understand why, for better or worse Rosa Parks became the embodiment of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Not to disparage Colvin at all. But the response to the Rosa Parks arrest was not because of media framing, rather it was organic and grassroots. Parks was a v well regarded, and active member of the community. Folks were genuinely upset, if it could happen to her it could happen to anyone.
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COMEDY. FUCKING. CENTRAL.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/elizabeth-jennings-graham#:~:text=Elizabeth%20Jennings%20Graham%20was%20told,and%20refused%20to%20get%20off.
Reposting it 👍
There is so much energy, thoughtfulness, intelligence in this snippet.
And Marcus, one of the great indies of Bay Area letters!
https://www.marcusbooks.com/store-history
Especially in such dangerous times.
Here ⬇️ is the reprint of Chapter 2, "The Boycott Begins" from JoAnn Robinson's memoir, "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It," 1987.
NHC may have added illustrations.
https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai3/protest/text5/robinsonbusboycott.pdf
it encourages (white) people to believe protest is useless
Ironic he was court martialed for refusing to go to the back of a bus.
It was orchestrated for the biggest effect. It's not widely known, but it was no secret either.
Just like Plessy's arrest (Plessy v Furgunson), it was orchestrated