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1. Today is the anniversary of one of the bravest civil rights protests in U.S. history. It is also one of the most forgotten. On this date in 1955, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin sat down in the Colored Section of a bus in Montgomery, AL--sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
2. That's right. Nine months before Rosa Parks was arrested, a 15-year-old high school student refused to give up her seat to a White woman and her case began the organizing that would turbo-charge the civil rights movement. So, why don't we all know her name?
3. Turns out that, despite being a plaintiff in the Browder v. Gayle case that desegregated public transportation, Ms. Colvin was seen as an unappealing face for Black progress because, despite being young and idealistic, she also became pregnant, allegedly by a married man.
4. Movement and community folks felt the stigma of a teen pregnancy would be bad for "the cause." In response, Ms. Colvin's mother told her "to be quiet about what I did. She told me to let Rosa be the one: White people aren't going to bother Rosa, they like her."
5. The result is that one of the bravest teenagers this country has ever produced is an historical curiosity rather than a celebrated figure. As Ms. Colvin says, "Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all."
6. Still, Ms. Colvin wasn't spared the negative consequences of her protests. Forced to leave Alabama a few years later, she had trouble maintaining employment because she was branded a troublemaker. She paid the costs, but did not receive the credit for her principles.
7. However correct or incorrect the calculus was about her being the face of the boycott at the time, the result is that the country still has a hard time with "imperfect" victims.
8. The legacy of PR decisions in organizing can be seen in the way we talk about injustices like mass incarceration, police misconduct, and housing inequality. We focus on low-level, non-violent drug offenders. Residents who did not commit crimes. Folks who don't miss payments.
9. But, in reality, it's the imperfect victims that make up the mass of folks whose dignity deserves better. The world is hard on folks, and not many can lead perfect lives with limited resources. Not many can live perfect lives with limitless resources, for that matter.
10. So today, on the 64th anniversary of Claudette Colvin's protest, let's remember her as a trail blazer. A pioneer. An astoundingly courageous civil rights leader. And a living legend. Because, yeah, she's still with us, living in the Bronx. Right. Now.
11. My hope is that, before she is taken from this earth, this nation will begin to turn the corner, and honor her the way we should have from the time she was 15, and showed more courage than the whole of the nation's elected leaders--and most of our civil rights leaders, too.
