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I don't want this to be a "gotcha!" tweet, I just want to clarify and introduce some more Black history. While Claudette Colvin was the first to have CR leadership consider her case to motivate the bus boycott, she was not the"actual first" to refuse. Thread: https://twitter.com/KaytriaL/status/1356304194316152832
Yes, Colvin's case is an important lesson in the role of respectability politics. But claiming she's the first is still an erasure of a legacy of resistance, of Black *women's* resistance. Bus resistance had *been* happening
Private Beatrice Jackson, a Black woman in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) on Nov 22, 1944 not only refused her seat, but cursed tf out of the bus driver. Dec 23, 1944, two BW WACs refused their seats. One was taken off the bus by a cop, then she PUNCHED THE COP IN THE MOUTH
In 1952 (Colvin/ Parks were '55), Sarah Keys's refusal led to Keys v. Carolina Coach Company (ruled in '55) "which the Interstate Commerce Commission outlawed the segregation of Black passengers in buses traveling across state lines" This was a week before Rosa Parks refused!
In fact, here is a whole timeline of transportation resistance: https://www.civilrightsteaching.org/desegregation/transportation-protests
So my point is: We should absolutely recognize Colvin, there is so much to learn from her case. However, she is part of a legacy of Black women's resistance that should be equally remembered!
sources:
"Integrating the US Military: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation since WW2" by Douglas W. Bristol Jr. and Heather Marie Stur
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/sarah-keys-bus
also: http://www.amynathanbooks.com/take_a_seat__make_a_stand_57755.htm
"Integrating the US Military: Race, Gender, and Sexual Orientation since WW2" by Douglas W. Bristol Jr. and Heather Marie Stur
https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/sarah-keys-bus
also: http://www.amynathanbooks.com/take_a_seat__make_a_stand_57755.htm
