A young girl named Claudette Colvin is the reason Rosa Parks started the Montgomery bus boycott Claudette was 15-year-old when she was arrested for refusing her seat on the bus to a white person. She did it nine months before Rosa Parks. Claudette Colvin was an African American pioneer of the 1950’s who fought against segregation and was the last spark to a big fire that was set in the civil rights movement. Claudette was like any other colored kid who had dreams and things she wanted to accomplish in her life. For example, Claudette had a dream of becoming a civil rights attorney to help those who need it. “A 15-year-old gifted Black student, with aspirations to become a civil rights attorney” stated by Oliver Laughland in his article posted …show more content…
For example, she had just gotten out of school when she got on a segregated bus, she decided to take a seat near the door, and that's when the bus driver told her to move. Claudette said she stayed because she felt the power of black leader holding her down. In Margot Adler’s article she wrote “It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harreit Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn’t get up.” Claudette stayed seated because she felt the black leader telling her to stay down and not give up her pride. She didn't want to be oppressed anymore and didn’t want to let the white people tell her what to do. In addition, after she got arrested Rosa Parks approached her and they became close. 9 months later when Rosa did the same act, Claudette was satisfied with the fact that adults followed her footsteps. Oliver Laughland wrote in his article “ At the time Colvin was unfazed when Parks became the face of the boycott nine months later. She was pleased that adults in her community had followed in her footsteps and taken a direct stand.” Claudette had inspired Rosa with her actions to the point she started a movement against the segregated buses. In all, Claudette 15-year-old self's action had inspired an immense movement against
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 Brown v Board of Education and the lynching of Emmitt Till fueled the Civil Right Movement to continue to challenge segregation, the Montgomery bus Boycott in Alabaman took years of planning by black communities, black colleges and the Women political Council (WPC) and the NAACP to start challenging segregation. The mayor of was ask by WPC to end segregating in the buses but the plead fell on deaf ears. The first Attempt was on Mach 2, 1955 with Claudette Colvin a 15 year-old student, was asked to give up her sit for a white man, she would not give up her sit. The police were called to remove her and allegedly assaulted the arresting police officer. For this reason, Colvin was not used to challenge segregation in the buses.
She was ridiculed by the police officers and they swore at her. (NPR) Claudette was treated as a "thing". Colvin was a strong person and a huge risk-taker. Colvin was scared because she knew there were punishments like lynchings and cross-burnings for what she did. (NPR)
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
Colvin says that, “Every day on the radio, I’d hear angry white callers shouting that the Communists had invaded the black churches and people had to act now. But I was not a person who lived in fear” (Hoose, 84). This evidence shows that the white people were doing these horrible things to the blacks to try to make them scared. However, this did not work on Claudette, which proves that she was being courageous and not falling for the fact that the white people were trying to make her scared.
This was the rise of her knowledge of discrimination amongst blacks and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement for Anne. Through all of life’s hardships, she always found a purpose and kept her head held
This was because she was among the first people to refuse to give up her seat to a white person. On March 2nd 1955, Claudette was arrested for not giving up her seat for a white person. The arrest angered the entire black
In a movement called the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a woman named Rosa Parks sat at the front of a public bus. When Rosa refused to give her seat up to a white person, she was arrested. The community planned a bus boycott to take place on the fifth of December. Instead of the expected 60% turnout, almost 90% of the community boycotted the buses. Soon, national news was talking about the movement.
One hundred years later people were still struggling with unity among the races. Whites only signs were plastered all over towns. People were segregated due skin color, but there were people like Rosa Parks who stood for what they believed in. After a long day Rosa was tired, her feet hurt and she was fed up with sitting in the back, so she did what no one had done, she sat in the whites only section. Because it was the 1960’s this caused an outrage, Rosa was arrested.
Claudette Colvin was only 15 years old when she decided that she was going to stand up against discrimination against black people. Claudette chose not to give up her bus seat and was confronted by the bus driver. After she was still refusing to give up her seat the bus driver called the police on her and she was charged with battery and assault. This story was very inspiring and shows that you should not let anyone tell you not to do something you have a right to do.
[[[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.
She became upset with the mistreatment, and knew she wanted to lead the movement in creating opportunities for blacks, the same opportunities whites
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 Rosa Parks was a woman with great confidence in what she believed in. She was a Civil Rights Activist who refused to give up her seat on the Alabama bus which started the 381-day Montgomery Bus Boycott. It helped start a nationwide effort to end segregation of public facilities. Later she received the NAACP’s highest award. As she grew older she received over 10 awards for her great accomplishments When Rosa parks had chronic tonsils all through her childhood.
I am going to tell you about an enchanting story about a woman named Rosa Parks and her mongomery, bus boycott. Rosa Parks was born on February 4,1913 in Tuskegee Alabama U.S.A she died on October 24,2005 [age 92] in Detroit, Michigan U.S. before she got arrested for boycotting a montgomery bus Rosa Parks went to school like a normal child. She was raised up on her daddy's farm and raised as a normal girl but she did have to go to a different school then the white people in 1929 when she was in 11th grade she had to go out of school because her grandmother got sick and she had to help her. So most people think that she was the first African American to refusing to yield her seat on a montgomery bus but she was not the first there were actually