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Edit: Just so you all know, Blogger is being finicky about letting me comment again. I’m able to comment on a few blogspot sites, but most of them are giving me an error message. I will keep trying!
This is one of those questions that I’d give a different answer to every month or so depending on whose books I’m reading and what portions of history I’ve most recently studied.
Ms. Colvin in 1952, three years before she refused to give up her seat.
Most of the history classes I took in school covered the exact same stories about kings, wars, and presidents over and over again every year, so I try to study the cultures, people, and events they skipped over now that I’m an adult and can expand my knowledge of the world.
Lately, I’ve been reading about the life of Claudette Colvin.
Everyone has heard about Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white person, but Ms. Colvin did it nine months before Ms. Parks did.
Because Ms. Colvin was a teenager at the time, the civil rights organizations of the time decided that they’d wait for a case involving an adult to challenge segregation on buses.
Whoever was chosen was going to be dealing with quite a bit of racism and hatred for speaking up, and they weren’t sure that Ms. Colvin was emotionally prepared for it.
I think she would have done a marvellous job, though, and should have been recognized for her courage from the beginning.
I remember hearing about Claudette Colvin in history. Not from a book of course, that would mean teachers were allowed to teach actual history. My teacher told us about her when she was giving a talk on racism after one student called another a certain word,(not part of her job, but she was an amazing teacher).
It’s cool that your teacher discussed her. I’m sorry it was under those circumstances, but what a way to shape impressionable minds for the better!
I really love obscure historical figures (talked about it today, actually). I’d never heard of her. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome. 🙂
Sometimes getting away from the textbook and chasing a rabbit brought up by a student is where learning prevails.
For sure!
I do like reading about lesser-known figures from history. And, of course, there’s so much that I wasn’t taught in school — particularly since we always seemed to run out of time to go over anything after WWII during the school year…
The same thing happened in my school!
I ended up taking a 1945-present history class in college just so I could finally learn about something after World War II. LOL.
I’ve heard her name before, but it’s always good to be reminded of courage in action. 🙂
🙂
I had not heard of Claudette Colvin before, but wow, what a courageous woman. I live finding out about unknown heroes in history.
It’s so cool to discover folks like her! And, yes, she was very courageous.
I’ve only recently learned about this, and she was so brave. While I understand why they didn’t highlight her actions at the time, I think she got shortchanged by being overlooked. And I also agree that my own education revisited the same thing year after year, when there was so much more to learn about and we weren’t being taught any of it. I love learning about areas of history that I didn’t learn about in school.
I’m glad you’ve learned to dive more deeply into history as well! That’s awesome, Leah.
Very cool. I don’t think I’d heard of her before.
She was such an interesting person!
Interesting, I hadn’t heard of her before. (And I am also getting fed up of Blogger.)
She was such a courageous person.
And I hear you there. I wish we knew why Blogger was having so many issues.