We all know of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Harriet Tubman, and Frederick Douglass. We can easily call on the most famous examples of incredible leaders in African American history, and because of this we fail to recognize the great deal of history makers who went unnoticed. These unsung heroes deserve to be recognized so for the rest of the month, I will shed some light on just a few of them and their courage and barrier breaking.
In 1955, Montgomery, Alabama’s bus segregation laws were challenged. A woman of color sat in a seat on the city bus and refused to give it up. I know what you’re thinking. She’s talking bout Rosa Parks! But 15-year old Claudette Colvin shared the same bravery that Parks had. Nine months before Rosa Parks’ famous protest against city bus segregation, a young Colvin was arrested for the same resistance.
Colvin later told Newsweek, “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.” She knew it was her Constitutional right to stay in her seat, and she was fought to prove this. Colvin’s case was considered to be used to oppose segregation laws by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) but they decided against this because she was just 15 and also pregnant. Despite this, Colvin became one of the four African American women who were plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case the following year when Montgomery’s bus segregation laws were ruled unconstitutional.
Not many people learn about Colvin’s act of heroism and it is often overshadowed by the more famous protests that led to the Montgomery bus boycott. Colvin’s actions were astounding and influential. Could you imagine a 15 year-old African-American youth in the 1950s having the valor to stand up to an entire system?
We all have the ability to make change in our communities and it doesn’t matter how old we are or our position! As Benjamin Mee said, sometimes all it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage. So what do you have a burning passion to do? Start a book? Share a song? Protest against injustices? Whatever it may be, this Black History Month -- in honor of Claudette Colvin, Rosa Parks, and the many other valiant African Americans in our history -- I challenge you to do something insanely courageous!
