Skip to main content

Standing Up By Sitting Down

Good evening and Marvelous Monday. I am a resident of the city of Chicago and ride public transportation everyday. One of the things that does not happen as much as it should would be for more men to offer seats to women who are standing. But in doing some research I found a young girl who in March 2, 1955 she refused to give her seat for another white passenger. She was eventually a plaintiff in in the Browder v Gayle court case which ruled Montgomery Alabama's bus system was segregated and unconstitutional. Her name is Claudette Colvin and she was able to Stand Up By Sitting Down.
Born in Montgomery Alabama on September 5, 1939 Ms. Colvin was arrested when she refused to give her seat when she was only 15 years old. In this times the Negro, we Blacks were called Negro back then, we had to give up or seats to any white person who wanted to sit down. That was how

things were done back then and when this young lady refused to obey the unwritten rule she was eventually convicted of a crime. But she became a hero that day in standing up for her rights. On March 2, 1955, Colvin was riding home on a city bus after school when a bus driver told her to give up her seat to a white passenger. She refused, saying, "It's my constitutional right to sit here as much
as that lady. I paid my fare, it's my constitutional right." Colvin felt compelled to stand her ground. "I felt like Sojourner Truth was pushing down on one shoulder and Harriet Tubman was pushing down on the other—saying, 'Sit down girl!' I was glued to my seat," she later told Newsweek. Standing By Sitting Down.

Ms. Colvin was arrested for violating the city's segregation laws and sat in jail for several hours scared of what might happen. She was labeled a troublemaker and eventually had to drop out of school and was an unwed mother at 17 years old which made some of the leaders back then back away from helping her. While Parks has been heralded as a civil rights heroine, the story of Claudette Colvin has received little notice. Some have tried to change that. Rita Dove penned the poem "Claudette Colvin Goes to Work," which later became a song. Phillip Hoose also wrote about her in the young adult biography Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice. While her role in the fight to end segregation in Montgomery may not be widely recognized, Colvin helped advance civil rights efforts in the city. "Claudette gave all of us moral courage. If she had not done what she did, I am not sure that we would have been able to mount the support for Mrs. Parks," her former attorney, Fred Gray, told Newsweek. Ms. Claudette Colvin, an American Hero, by Standing Up By Sitting Down.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I Can Do This By Myself

On of the things that is happening today is the intense presence of social media. Every action, movement or word can be captured on some type of device. James Meredith set out on a March for Freedom of the Colored People (another of the many names for Blacks back then) in June of 1966 and wanted to do it alone. No help from other civil rights people of the time but he wanted to do it by himself. In changing the landscape for Black people, James Meredith said. I Can Do This By Myself. Born June 25, 1933 in Kosciusko Mississippi, he was raised on a farm and never saw racism before until he was riding the train from Chicago back home and had to not only give up his seat but stand the entire ride home. After that he promised to help begin changes to the status quo. He first began after leaving the U.S. Air Force,by registering to attend the University of Mississippi where he applied and was accepted but denied because he was a Negro. He was eventually allowed to enter the school on...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Walk of Change

One of the things that a person has to do to affect change is to be part of change. In the state of Louisiana like other states of the south, Black children could not attend any public schools alongside their white counterparts. But on November 14, 1960, a six year old girl, with two federal agents to her front and two in back, began a Walk of Change into the William Frantz School in New Orleans to become the first Black person to be admitted to an all-white elementary school. Young Ms. Bridges was born on September 8, 1954 in Tylertown Mississippi. Raised on a farm with her parents and grandparents who were sharecroppers (sharecroppers were people who would pick cotton or whatever crop grew by the owner and would receive food and lodging for their work which was still similar to slavery). After moving to New Orleans she took a test to enter into the school and began her educational journey. Ms. Bridges was jeered everyday by parents of white students, one who threatened to poi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Invaders

In looking at more Unheralded Heroes I go back to time of the Memphis Sanitation strikes in 1968. This strike was a big movement for the Negro at that time. Dr. Martin Luther King saw this a chance to continue the message of non-violence in Memphis. But a group of young men had energized the youth of this area and looked at non-violence as not working and wanted to change the approach of being treated like any other American. This group was called the Invaders and they are the Unheralded Heroes I want to feature today. "Inspired by militant black leaders like Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, a new, radicalized generation of civil rights activists made up of young college students, Vietnam vets, musicians, and . intellectuals emerged in Memphis in 1967. The Invaders espoused Black Power and, when pushed, did not limit themselves to non-violence"(http://www.prichardsmith.com/portfolio/the-invaders). Because the vocabulary and the actions of the Invaders were about Bla...
Post a Comment
Read more