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CLAUDETTE COLVEN
By Oksana Musiyenko, 8th Grade, Beer Middle School |
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Rosa Parks is known as the "Mother of the Modern-Day Civil Rights Movement" (Wikipedia). She got this name by refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in 1955 which started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. But what people do not know is that she was not the first person to give up her seat on a bus.
Nine months before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colven refused to give up her seat. She was fifteen when she was riding home with her friends from school. She was sitting about two seats away from the emergency exit when four hobos came inside the bus (Wikipedia). She and her friends were forced to get up and move to the back the back of the bus. Her friends had moved but Claudette refused. She was put into jail for disobeying the law. After Claudette's arrest she got pregnant by a much older man as a result of being raped (Wikipedia). The attempt to overturn the segregation laws was put on hold because of Claudette's pregnancy. Everyone was afraid that Claudette's case would be ignored. After a while Claudette's story slowly disappeared and soon people started to forget about her. I think that Claudette should have gotten credit for her actions.
Nine months later Rosa Parks also didn't give up her seat. She had got arrested but it started the Montgomery Bus Boycott with Martin Luther King Junior. To this day Rosa Parks is a great hero to many people, but I think Claudette Colven is much more heroic than Rosa Parks because it takes guts to disobey the law at 15 years of age rather than at 44.
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April 7, 2009 |
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To Contact Congressman Levin: -
Email Congressman Levin In Michigan: 27085 Gratiot Ave, Roseville, MI 48066 | (586) 498-7122 | (248) 968-2025
In Washington: 1236 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 | (202) 225-4961
