Junior’s Black History Month Fact Of The Day

Day - 9 The "Rosa Parks" before Rosa Parks

We all know the story of Rosa Parks all too well. She deserves all the recognition she gets, but she wasn't the first to refuse to give up her seat. A number of women did this before her, one of them being Claudette Colvin.

Colvin made her stand against segregation when she was only 15 years old. It was on March 2, 1955, a whole nine months before Rosa Parks. Colvin had been studying famous black leaders like Harriet Tubman in school. This lead them to discuss current day Jim Crow laws. Feeling inspired, Colvin refused to get up when the bus driver ordered her to do so.

“It felt like Sojourner Truth was on one side pushing me down, and Harriet Tubman was on the other side of me pushing me down. I couldn't get up," Colvin said.

She was arrested and thrown in jail. She was one of four women that challenged the law in court. Browder v. Gayle, helped end the practice of segregation on Montgomery public buses.

So why has this story remained mostly unknown? It's because the NAACP felt that Rosa Parks would make a better face for the movement than a 15 year old girl.

And THAT is Junior's Black History Month Fact Of The Day!