“You've got to keep the white and the black separate.
For a number of years, the negro passengers on the city buslines
of montgomery, have been humiliated, and intimidated.
The tired feet of those who walked the dusty roads of montgomery.
On March 2nd 1955, 9 months before Rosa Parks' arrest,
a teenage schoolgirl named Claudette Colvin boarded a city
bus after school to head home.
As it filled up a white woman was left standing
and the bus driver ordered the 15-year-old
Colvin to get up and move to the back, she refused and was
dragged off the bus in handcuffs.”
In this episode of 60 mins in 6 minutes,
I want to talk about the immense bravery
of a 15-year-old girl.
A story that has often been overlooked in history,
but one that deserves every bit of attention.
This is the story of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old schoolgirl
who took a stand for what she believed in.
“Claudette Colvin is a 15-year-old be-spectacled teenager.
Uh-oh let me say that. Be-spectacled."
The New york times ran an article headlined
Negro Girl convicted for refusing
to move to the back of the bus.”
On March 2nd, 1955, Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old
student at Booker T. Washington High School, boarded a public
bus to get home from school.
Colvin’s family did not own a car,
so this was her form of transportation to and from school.
She boarded the bus at Capitol Heights, a station you
may have heard of - one that would become infamous in history
in the months that followed, as a woman
by the name of Rosa Parks would board a bus here.
Colvin was sitting about two seats from the
emergency exit when four white passengers boarded
and the driver ordered her, along with three other
black passengers, to get up and
give their seats to the white passengers.
Colvin refused. While the other black passengers
complied, Claudette said that on that day,
she was thinking of the slavery fighters she had read about
during what was called back then, Negro History Week in February.
She said "The spirit of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth
was in me. So I didn't get up."
And as Claudette continued to look out the window,
ignoring the driver, he walked back and asked her again.
She continued to refuse, and as a result,
police were summoned.
“I am sitting in my right section, and I am not moving.
Move!”
Two officers approached Colvin
and directed her to leave and According to
witnesses they pushed and kicked the 15-year-old teenager,
and knocked the textbooks from her arms and dragged
her from the bus while the passengers on the bus
sat quiet, most probably frozen in fear.
Instead of being taken to a juvenile detention centre,
Colvin was handcuffed and taken to the city jail where
she was put in a small cell with nothing but a broken sink
and cot without a mattress.
She was charged with disorderly conduct,
violating the segregation ordinance
and assault and battery.
Colvin was the first person to be arrested for
challenging Montgomery's bus segregation policies, and this
is largely attested to why her story made few local papers,
that and according to some historians, her age had some
reluctant to elevate her as a symbol of social justice
- but nine months later, the same act of defiance
by Rosa Parks was reported all over the world.
At the time of this incident,
Colvin was an active member of the NAACP's Youth Council,
and she was actually being advised by Rosa Parks.
They would go on to become close
in the years that followed, with Rosa Parks
speaking highly of the brave young girl who took a stand.
“And I felt like this was my time to take a stand for justice.”
Now, at this point I’d like to address some of the
comments I’ve received while highlighting these stories like
why Am i, a ginger white dude, the one talking about these
stories during black history month.
And that’s fair, but the short answer
is these are not assigned, I am bringing them to
my editor because I find them fascinating, and in comparison
to other facets of american history,
I feel they are grossly undertold.
When I think they should be overtold. I truly
think you will be hard pressed to find more examples of immense
bravery in the face of adversity, than the everyday
struggle black americans faced
combating segregation and injustice.
Bravery like that of a 15-year-old girl.
And the longer answer is because I’m
frankly fascinated by black history.
I have been since I stepped foot in this country
and studied the works of james Baldwin in college.
And to be honest I feel that if more
people who looked like me showed that same interest,
then maybe more americans would understand how
these incidents sculpted the body of this nation, and maybe,
just maybe, empathize a little more with their repercussions today.
But that’s just my opinion and I’m always open to hear yours.
So come share with me @francismmaxwell
let me know what you think. 104 00:04:43,850 --> 00:00:00,000 Support independent media here at tyt.com /join