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Women's Month - Day twenty-seven (belated)
Sep. 1st, 2020 12:09 amClaudette Colvin
Claudette Colvin was the first African-American to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama. She did it nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing - Rosa Parks' act was inspired by Claudette Colvin. Claudette Colvin was 15, and she wanted to be president one day. It wasn't even her idea not to move, a pregnant black woman next to her didn't want to have to stand so a white woman could sit in the 'white section'. The white woman didn't even want to sit in Claudette or the pregnant woman's seat - she just wanted them to move back so she was in the 'white section', and not sat in the same row as black people. The NAACP were considering making Claudette the face of their local movement for what she did, but they didn't think white people would sympathise with her - especially after she got pregnant to a married man a few months later. They decided Rosa Parks, who was older, educated, less outspoken and lighter-skinned, would be a better public face for them - and given the state of things in the country, you can't exactly blame them, and even Claudette said it was the right move, afterwards. But she refused to move, first.
People talk a lot of shit about teenage girls, and they're literally up in here saving the world.
Claudette Colvin was the first African-American to be arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama. She did it nine months before Rosa Parks did the same thing - Rosa Parks' act was inspired by Claudette Colvin. Claudette Colvin was 15, and she wanted to be president one day. It wasn't even her idea not to move, a pregnant black woman next to her didn't want to have to stand so a white woman could sit in the 'white section'. The white woman didn't even want to sit in Claudette or the pregnant woman's seat - she just wanted them to move back so she was in the 'white section', and not sat in the same row as black people. The NAACP were considering making Claudette the face of their local movement for what she did, but they didn't think white people would sympathise with her - especially after she got pregnant to a married man a few months later. They decided Rosa Parks, who was older, educated, less outspoken and lighter-skinned, would be a better public face for them - and given the state of things in the country, you can't exactly blame them, and even Claudette said it was the right move, afterwards. But she refused to move, first.
People talk a lot of shit about teenage girls, and they're literally up in here saving the world.
