Mr. Schaper,
I very much enjoyed your piece on Rosa Parks. She became the poster girl for civil rights after the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott , but that isn't the whole story. Millions of school children have learned of her brave refusal to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus in December 1955 and the subsequent struggle to desegregate the buses in Montgomery. Nine months before Rosa refused to give up her seat on the bus a 15 year old Negro girl named Claudette Colvin refused to giver up her seat on a Montgomery bus and was arrested, and it was she and four other young women whose testimony and court case (Broder v Gayle) ended segregation on buses in the South. In fact when Jo Ann Robinson printed thousands of flyers that began the bus boycott Claudette's name (though misspelled as Claudette Colbert) and not Rosa's was on the flyers. On December 17, 1956 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the case that included Claudette.
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Unfortunately Claudette Colvin his become a forgotten footnote in history. Like Rosa, Claudette moved North where she took a job in a hospital. She was occasionally interviewed by historians and media, but she lived in the shadow of Rosa Parks. It is a shame that our politicians, schools and media have neglected to study the actual case and continue to celebrate Rosa. Claudette was an inspiration and she deserves to be recognized.
Sincerely,
Gary Y. Coates
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I don't see why we should not recognized Claudette!
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