claudette colvin twice toward justice by phillip hoose

'All I remember is that I was not going to walk off the bus voluntarily,' Colvin says. Her school books went flying off her lap. Two police officers put her in handcuffs and arrested her. The bus driver ordered her to get up and she refused, saying she'd paid her fare and it was her constitutional right. She remembers taking the bus home from high school on March 2, 1955, as clear as if it were yesterday. Now a 69-year-old retiree, Colvin lives in the Bronx.

Most of the women were quietly fined, and no one heard much more.Ĭolvin was the first to really challenge the law. Most people know about Parks and the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott that began in 1955, but few know that there were a number of women who refused to give up their seats on the same bus system. Two police officers handcuffed and arrested her.Ĭourtesy of Birmingham Public Library Department of Archives and Manuscriptsįew people know the story of Claudette Colvin: When she was 15, she refused to move to the back of the bus and give up her seat to a white person - nine months before Rosa Parks did the very same thing. As The New York Times said in a glowing review, Hoose 'finally gives the credit she deserves.When the driver of the segregated bus, like the one shown above, ordered Colvin to get up, she refused, saying she'd paid her fare and it was her constitutional right. Called 'unforgettable' by The Wall Street Journal, this outstanding, ground-breaking account of an almost forgotten civil rights pioneer garnered praise and accolades, including a National Book Award, a Newbery Honor, and a Robert F. The Board of Education did for education. Gayle, the landmark case that did for transportation what Brown v. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v.

But instead of being celebrated as Parks was, Colvin was shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. It was March 2, 1955-nine months before Rosa Parks took a similar stand. 'It's my constitutional right!' screamed Claudette Colvin as she was dragged off a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, after refusing to give up her seat to a white woman. It was March 2, 1955-nine months before Rosa Parks took a similar sta.

Claudette colvin twice toward justice by phillip hoose