An Unsung Civil Rights Era Heroine
March 17, 2009
Nine months before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus, a number of others, including a teenage girl, had done the same thing. Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose, tells that one teen's story. (She is now in her late sixties, and lives in the Bronx.) Last weekend National Public Radio ran a piece on Colvin and the new book, which was written for young adults. (I've requested the book from the library, but haven't read it yet. Sounds quite interesting.)
Oh, wow. I'm glad she's still alive. I mentioned her in my book --! The reason she didn't front the Civil Rights movement, as I understand it, is because she got pregnant, and there were issues with the (married, older) father of the child. She was suddenly too messy and human.
I'll look forward to the book.
Posted by: tanita | March 17, 2009 at 01:15 PM
She's in your book? Cool! The NPR piece mentions how much of the actual ground work of the Civil Rights Movement was done by young people and women.
Posted by: Susan | March 17, 2009 at 01:26 PM
Isn't it interesting how it took a certain "face" to kickstart the movement....I pray that as humans we've moved beyond that in dealing with various human rights issues.
Thanks for posting this, I'm going to go back to listen to the NPR interview.
Posted by: Alycia in Virginia | March 17, 2009 at 09:51 PM
Excellent. I'll have to look for that title, too.
Jules
Posted by: Jules | March 18, 2009 at 10:02 AM