A Refection on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
On this Third Sunday of January, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day, which will occur on Monday the 17th. We wish to remember the legacy of him and all those who came before, with, and after him. We would like to bring to light someone who we believe is important to remember in history, someone who is often unspoken in the Civil Rights Movement in the mid 1950s. This person was Claudette Colvin.
On March 2nd, 1955, 15-years-old Claudette, returning home from school in Montgomery, Alabama. As she was riding home on the bus that day with several other classmates, the bus quickly filled up. There was one person left standing - a white woman. Claudette recalls the bus driver yelling at her and three other of her classmates to move out of the row for the white woman to sit down, and everyone complied - except Claudette. Claudette remembers thinking, “If she sat down in the same row as me, it meant I was as good as her.”
So there Claudette sat, not just physically, but also in the face of oppression, segregation, and white supremacy. Claudette recalls her fears and how she went limp as the police dragged her off the bus. She tells how she recited, “Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee, the characters of Midsummer’s Night Dream, the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalm,” to calm herself down. It was after her arrest when activists began to become more empowered in ending segregation in Montgomery. At her trial, she was charged with disturbing the peace, breaking the segregation law, and for assaulting the police officers. However, the judge ultimately dropped the first two charges, only assigning her the charge of assault. Civil rights leaders later decided she was not the “right plaintiff” to organize around, as she was seen as too young, too “feisty and uncontrollable”, and because she was from the “wrong side of town”.
Claudette Colvin is still alive, at eight-two years old. Her legacy, though less spoken, still continues to live on. Please consider checking out her story in the book, “Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice”. Our sources for her story can be found at the following links: rosaparksbiography.org/bio/claudette-colvin/ , and www.npr.org/2009/03/15/101719889/before-rosa-parks-there-was-claudette-colvin
