Claudette Colvin
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Hey, Little Ant We
Were There, Too! It's
Our World, Too!
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“Phil Hoose,
who has done pioneering work in bringing to
our attention the crucial role of young people
in social movements, here tells the extraordinary,
yet little-known story of Claudette Colvin,
who, even before the famous incident involving
Rosa Parks, sparked the historic bus boycott
in Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette Colvin was
a remarkable teenager. With great courage she
acted upon her principles -- and played a significant
role in the drama of the civil rights movement.
This is a story that if taught in every classroom
in the nation, might well inspire a new generation
of young activists to join the on-going struggle
for social justice.”
—Howard
Zinn, author of A People's History of the United
States
Phil Hoose’s profile of the remarkable
Claudette Colvin is MUST reading for anyone
still imbued with hope. She is a lighthouse
in a stormy sea.”
—Studs
Terkel, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
of The Good Warr
“In Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
young readers finally get to hear Claudette
Colvin’s story in her own words, giving
them a detailed look at segregated life in 1950s
Montgomery, Alabama, and showing them how one
teenager helped change the world.”
— Marian
Wright Edelman, President, Children’s
Defense Fund
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Claudette
Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
“When it comes to
justice, there is no easy way to get it. You
can’t sugarcoat it. You have to take a
stand and say, ‘This is not right.’
–
Claudette Colvin
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed
up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation,
refused to give her seat to a white woman on a
segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead
of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just
nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette
Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates
and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted,
a year later she dared to challenge segregation
again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle,
the landmark case that struck down the segregation
laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings
of the Jim Crow South.
Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin
and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first
in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown
civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic
story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery
bus boycott and court case that would change the
course of American history.
order
now
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