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Sep 5 9 tweets 4 min read Twitter logo Read on Twitter
Happy 84th birthday to Claudette Colvin!

She refused to move to the back of a bus 9 months before Rosa Parks, the NAACP did not want to use her to represent them because she was 15 & pregnant.

Other women who refused to give up their seats before Rosa Parks

A THREAD! Image
A century before Rosa Parks, there was Elizabeth Jennings

In 1854, she refused to get off of a streetcar that only allowed white passengers.

She was arrested. She sued (and won), and her case led to the eventual desegregation of NYC's public transit.
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In 1944, Irene Morgan refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Greyhound bus in Gloucester County, VA. She was charged with violating Virginia Jim Crow laws. In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, striking down Virginia’s law in Morgan v. Virginia case.
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4 years before Rosa Parks, there was PFC Sarah Keys from the Keyesville neighborhood of Washington, NC, who when traveling from Fort Dix in NJ back home to Washington, NC in 1951, was told to give her seat to a white Marine and move to the back of the bus. Image
She refused to move, thus the driver emptied the bus, directed the other passengers to another vehicle & barred Keys from boarding it. When Keys asked why she shouldn’t ride the bus, she was arrested, and spent 13 hours in a cell and paid a fine
In October 21, 1955: 18 year old Mary Louise Smith REFUSED to give up her seat on a city line bus to a white passenger thus she was arrested. Image
In 1956, Smith was one Of 5 women named as plaintiffs in the federal civil suit, Browder v. Gayle, challenging the constitutionality of the state and local bus segregation laws. On June 13, 1956, a three-judge panel of the District Court ruled that the laws were unconstitutional.
Ida B. Wells successfully sued the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company after she was forcefully removed from a Tennessee train for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.

The victory was later reversed by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Image
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More from @AfricanArchives

Sep 4
Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche and his children were the only black passengers on RMS Titanic.

A THREAD
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Joseph Phillipe Lemercier Laroche was the son of a white French army captain and a Haitian woman who was a descendant of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the first ruler of independent Haiti.
Laroche’s uncle, Dessalines M. Cincinnatus, was president of Haiti from 1911 to 1912. Image
Read 14 tweets
Sep 2
“f**k it, i’ll do it!” —black women

Black women are routinely erased from public memory and historical narratives of resistance.

Black women powered the civil rights movement, but rarely became its stars.

A THREAD!


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Aunt Polly Jackson, was an escaped slave who worked as an agent on the Underground Railroad helping others escape.

She was known for fighting off slave catchers with a butcher knife and a kettle of boiling water Image
Harriet Tubman, the woman who escaped slavery then fought and freed hundreds of slaves.

She reminded us that bravery and refusal to accept injustice can change history. Image
Read 11 tweets
Aug 30
Happy birthday to activist and chairman of the Black Panther Party Fred Hampton.

He was assassinated by Chicago police and the FBI at just 21 years old.

William O'Neal, an FBI informant, infiltrated the Black Panthers and set up Fred Hampton for $300.

A THREAD Image
In Illinois, where Fred Hampton was born, the police constantly harassed black people. Access to social goods too was made difficult, if not curtailed, in the areas with heavy black populations.
The party, a creation of Huey Newton and fellow student Bobby Seale, insisted on black nationalist response to racial discrimination. The party’s Illinois chapter was opened in 1967 and Hampton joined in 1968, aged just 20. Image
Read 13 tweets
Aug 29
Sarah Saartjie Baartman was cruelly exploited in Europe by being exhibited as a freak show attraction because of her protruding butt. After her death, her body was displayed in a Paris museum for over 100yrs.

The exploitation of Sarah Baartman.

A THREAD! Image
SARAH "Saarjte" Baartman of the khoikhoi people of South Africa was born in 1789 and was one of 2 women put on display as a "FREAK SHOW" act in England and then later France. Image
The men who promised her a life of pride in sharing her culture with the World tricked her, and though she was given pay she often was at the expense of verbal, sexual, and physical abuse. Image
Read 10 tweets
Aug 29
On this day in 1955, Emmett Till, 14, was kidnapped and brutally murdered for whistling at a white woman.

His killers, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, allegedly saw Till whistle at a white women at a gas station.

A THREAD Image
On 28th August 1955, Emmett Till, 14, was kidnapped and brutally murdered for 'whistling' at a white woman. Image
His killers, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, allegedly saw Till whistle at a white women at a gas station. Image
Read 9 tweets
Aug 27
Sally Hemings, the woman Thomas Jefferson enslaved.

She was called his "mistress," but how can you be a mistress when you were enslaved, a child, and could not consent? Had absolutely no choice?

A THREAD Image
Sally Hemings was born into slavery in Virginia. After the death of their master, Hemings family was inherited by the daughter of their master, Martha, who had married Thomas Jefferson and lived in Monticello.
When Jefferson’s went to Paris, France on diplomatic service in 1784, Sally also went there 3 years later as a companion and maid to Jefferson’s eight-year-old daughter Maria.
Read 13 tweets

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