The First Rosa Parks
The untold story of Claudette Colvin
Many have heard the name Rosa Parks, an African-American woman known today to be "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement" when she refused to give up her seat on the bus on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama. What many Americans may not have heard is Rosa Parks wasn't the first African American to refuse her seat on a Montgomery bus. The first to ever refuse her seat for a white passenger, was a 15-year-old girl named Claudette Colvin. She was arrested 9 months before Rosa Parks. Claudette Colvin was in the NAACP's Youth council, which was adivsed by Rosa Parks.
By Betty Kovac
A Civil Rights leader from the NAACP, Edgar D. Nixon, had been waiting for the right segregation challenge case, so he volunteered to help Claudette Colvin with her bail. The rest of the black civil right leaders disagreed that Claudette coud be a sybmol of injustice for two reasons. First, she was still a minor. Second, she was charged with disorderly conduct after she cussed out the policeman who arrested her. When Rosa Parks was arrested nine months later, the Civil Rights leaders thought that Rosa Parks was better suited for the cause than Claudette Colvin, but her desire to fight against the injustice still inspired others to take action.
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