03/02/2021
15-year-old Claudette Colvin became the first person to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, Alabama on this day in 1955. She was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a White passenger nine months before the widely known act of resistance by Rosa Parks. In later describing the experience, Colvin said, "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."
While her story has not received as much attention as that of other civil rights champions, she was indeed one of the many incredible voices that made up the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, including being a part of the landmark 1956 Browder v. Gayle case, which helped bring an end to segregation on Montgomery's public bus system. Colvin's civil rights contributions are not as well-known as Parks' in large part because NAACP leaders at the time choose not to use her arrest as a test case to argue against segregation. This was largely due to concerns about her suitability as a symbol of their movement due to her young age and the fact that she became pregnant several months after her arrest.
To share her inspiring story with kids, we recommend the new chapter book "She Persisted: Claudette Colvin" for ages 6 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/she-persisted-claudette-colvin
She is also the subject of a National Book Award-winning book "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice," for ages 10 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/claudette-colvin
Colvin is one of 13 trailblazing women featured in the inspiring picture book, "She Persisted: 13 American Women Who Changed the World" for ages 5 to 9 at https://www.amightygirl.com/she-persisted
She is also featured in "Freedom's Children: Young Civil Rights Activists Tell Their Own Stories" for ages 10 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/freedom-s-children
For more books about courageous girls and women of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, check out our post on "50 Inspiring Books on Girls & Women of the Civil Rights Movement" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=11177
For more Mighty Girl titles specifically focused on the Montgomery Bus Boycott, we recommend "I Am Rosa Parks" for ages 4 to 8 (https://www.amightygirl.com/i-am-rosa-parks-1), "If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks" for ages 5 to 9 (https://www.amightygirl.com/if-a-bus-could-talk), and "Who Was Rosa Parks?" for ages 7 to 10 (https://www.amightygirl.com/who-was-rosa-parks)
