Biographies
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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.
Claudette Colvin is the National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, a Newbery Honor Book, A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist, and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.
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.
Claudette Colvin is the National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, a Newbery Honor Book, A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist, and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.
Editorial Reviews
"Hoose's book, based in part on interviews with Colvin and people who knew her--finally gives her the credit she deserves." ―The New York Times Book Review
"History might have forgotten Claudette Colvin, or relegated her to footnote status, had writer Phillip Hoose not stumbled upon her name in the course of other research and tracked her down. . . .The photos of the era are riveting and Claudette's eloquent bravery is unforgettable." ―The Wall Street Journal
"Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, a teenager who knew her constitutional rights and was willing to be arrested to prove it" ―The Washington Post, a Best Book of 2009 selection
"Compelling." ―New York Daily News
"Hoose vividly recreates Colvin's bravery." ―The New York Post
"Hoose makes the moments in Montgomery come alive, whether it's about Claudette's neighborhood, her attorneys, her pastor or all the different individuals in the civil rights movement who paths she crossed . . . . An engrossing read." ―Chicago Tribune
"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 War
"Today, thanks to Hoose, a new generation of girls--and boys--can add Claudette Colvin to their list of heroines." ―Christian Science Monitor
"Hoose writes in a fluid, easy style and weaves in many voices of the time. He captures the tension and explosive emotions in the pivotal scenes." ―Sacramento Bee
"Hoose's evenhanded account investigates Colvin's motives and influences, and carefully establishes the historical context so that readers can appreciate both Colvin's maturity and bravery and the boycott leadership's pragmatism." ―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Hoose encourages teens to empathize with an age peer, once dismissed as too ‘emotional' to withstand public scrutiny, who later testified in the federal lawsuit that would finally...
"History might have forgotten Claudette Colvin, or relegated her to footnote status, had writer Phillip Hoose not stumbled upon her name in the course of other research and tracked her down. . . .The photos of the era are riveting and Claudette's eloquent bravery is unforgettable." ―The Wall Street Journal
"Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, a teenager who knew her constitutional rights and was willing to be arrested to prove it" ―The Washington Post, a Best Book of 2009 selection
"Compelling." ―New York Daily News
"Hoose vividly recreates Colvin's bravery." ―The New York Post
"Hoose makes the moments in Montgomery come alive, whether it's about Claudette's neighborhood, her attorneys, her pastor or all the different individuals in the civil rights movement who paths she crossed . . . . An engrossing read." ―Chicago Tribune
"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 War
"Today, thanks to Hoose, a new generation of girls--and boys--can add Claudette Colvin to their list of heroines." ―Christian Science Monitor
"Hoose writes in a fluid, easy style and weaves in many voices of the time. He captures the tension and explosive emotions in the pivotal scenes." ―Sacramento Bee
"Hoose's evenhanded account investigates Colvin's motives and influences, and carefully establishes the historical context so that readers can appreciate both Colvin's maturity and bravery and the boycott leadership's pragmatism." ―Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Hoose encourages teens to empathize with an age peer, once dismissed as too ‘emotional' to withstand public scrutiny, who later testified in the federal lawsuit that would finally...
Readers Top Reviews
Tony LaforceTorben R
Before Rosa Park, a civil rights hero there was Claudette Colvin who bravery about fighting against racial discrimination in America led to the legendary Montgomery Bus Boycott which led to a sea change in American society for African American. A story from the past which very much applies today as the Black Live Matters demonstrations across the world fights for the elimination of racial discrimination. A very easy read for people of any age and will inspire you to read more about the American Civil Rights era. Claudette Colvin is a heroine whose name should be known more widely for her brave actions.
Shelley S.
Sometimes it's really hard to find a good nonfiction for preteens and young adults, but it's even harder to find a nonfiction book about history for someone who only reads fantasy books and doesn't read nonfiction at all. I really enjoyed reading Claudette Colvin, I actually feel like I learned something! There was someone BEFORE Rosa Parks! This is the story that needed to be told, so many people know about Rosa Parks, but not every one knows about Claudette, and when I become a school librarian someday in the near future, I want to include this book on my shelves because students need to know not just about Rosa Parks but how there were many more like her before her and after her who stood up for their rights. I think it's also interesting to note why Claudette's story isn't always told and the book really addresses that issue and some historical books that include Claudette don't explain why her story was often disregarded compared to Rosa Park's story. This novel helps you learn about Claudette's story, but it also gives some history on Rosa Parks as well and that the two even knew each other! The reason why this is a great reason to suggest to your son or daughter or to a student is because this book has a lot of facts and a lot of the story comes from the recounting of Claudette herself from interviews. To me that made this book credible and authentic and therefore, worth my time.and yours.
Dienne
Why, oh why, is this book - not to mention its subject - so obscure? I'm 40 years old, liberal and fairly well versed on the civil rights era, yet I'd never heard of Claudette Colvin or had any clue that anyone did what Rosa Parks did before Rosa Parks did it. In fact, as I learned from this book, Rosa Parks' role, while vitally important, was really just a formality because anger over the bus segregation was already simmering madly due in part to the actions of Claudette Colvin and another teenager, Mary Louise Smith, who went before Rosa Parks and took the brunt of it. Phillip Hoose's book, "Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice" opens with a brief history of Jim Crow laws and segregation in the South, specifically in Montgomery, Alabama. Most of the information should be familiar to most readers, but there are details that really bring home the reality of Jim Crow - such as the man named Brooks who was shot for refusing to get off the bus unless he got his dime back. The next chapter is about Claudette's early life, which was nearly as tragic as most of her later life. Her father left his family and eventually her mother shipped her off to live with her great aunt and great uncle. Fortunately, Claudette was loved there and thrived, becoming a good student. However, in another tragic strike, her younger sister died of polio when Claudette was only thirteen years old. Still reeling from her loss, Claudette becomes passionately interested in civil rights following the arrest and sentencing of one of her classmates, Jeremiah Reeves. The next several chapters chronicle the lead up to Claudette's refusal to relinquish her seat, the violent incident itself, and the fall-out therefrom. Unlike Rosa Parks, Claudette was hauled violently off the bus, thrown into a squad car, handcuffed and locked in a jail cell. She knew enough not to fight back or even resist, but nonetheless her white accusers painted her as a wild unruly teenager which, despite the lack of truth, made her inappropriate as the "face" of the bus protest movement. Also unlike Rosa Parks, Claudette was not hailed as a hero for her actions. Many, perhaps most, blacks resented her for drawing attention to the situation and making their lives more difficult. Needless to say, she does not receive justice and her actions seem to have no impact on improving civil rights. Her story is an excellent illustration of the difficulty of standing up for what is right and bearing the consequences for no apparent gain when even your own friends and allies turn against you. In yet another tragic event, Claudette was taken advantage of during this low period by an older man who left her when she became pregnant. As if she wasn't already "unruly" enough, there was no way an unwed pregnant girl could be recognized by the civil rights leadership. But none of...
P. Andersen
Little known piece of American history, at least unknown to myself. I'd never heard of Claudette Colvin, she was a 14 year old girl, who refused to give up HER seat before Rosa Parks. Loads of black and white photos depicting the south of the 1950's and current photo's of Claudette Colvin and the author in the Afterword. This should be in EVERY home with children 8 years and older and definitely in elementary classrooms. This book has won The National book award, An ALA best Book for young adults, and a Newbery Honor Book winner. AND an Amazon.com Top 10 Book: Teens Plus many more . I recommend this to anyone who likes to read nonfiction, I recommend to anyone who likes courageous persons and willing to learn and understand so that past mistakes are not repeated . I recommend this to anyone outside the United States who want to learn something of the mid 20th century U.S. and the past connects with current events . A great read, I'd give it a 10 if I could, I bought it used and would have bought it new at twice the cost, that's just how highly I regard it. If this review has helped, click YES below. Thank you.
Library Lady
Everyone has probably heard of Rosa Park’s brave stance against segregation. However, Claudette Colvin, who first refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus, has been sadly overlooked. This is her powerful story of courage and determination. She paved the way, at great personal cost, for those of us who came after her. Thank you, Ms. Colvin. May God forever bless and keep you.❤️🙏🏿🌺
Short Excerpt Teaser
CHAPTER ONEJim Crow and the Detested Number Ten
I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
-Langston HughesClaudette Colvin: I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites. I was standing in line at the general store when this little white boy cut in front of me. Then some older white kids came in through the door and started laughing. I turned around to see what they were laughing at. They were pointing at me. The little white boy said, "Let me see, let me see, too." For some reason they all wanted to see my hands. I held my hands up, palms out, and he put his hands up against my hands. Touched them. The older kids doubled up laughing. My mother saw us, and she saw that the boy's mother was watching. Then my mom came straight across the room, raised her hand, and gave me a backhand slap across my face. I burst into tears. She said, "Don't you know you're not supposed to touch them?" The white boy's mother nodded at my mom and said, "That's right, Mary." That's how I learned I should never touch another white person again.• • •If, like Claudette Colvin, you grew up black in central Alabama during the 1940s and 1950s, Jim Crow controlled your life from womb to tomb. Black and white babies were born in separate hospitals, lived their adult lives apart from one another, and were buried in separate cemeteries. The races were segregated by a dense, carefully woven web of laws, signs, partitions, arrows, ordinances, unequal opportunities, rules, insults, threats, and customs-often backed up by violence. Together, the whole system of racial segregation was known as "Jim Crow."Jim Crow's job was not only to separate the races but to keep blacks poor. In 1950, nearly three in five black women in Montgomery, Alabama's capital city, worked as maids for white families, and almost three-quarters of employed black men mowed lawns and did other kinds of unskilled labor. The average black worker made about half as much money as the average white. "The only professional jobs... open to blacks were... pastoring a black church and schoolteaching, which was open because of segregated schools," recalled the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, the minister of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery during the 1950s.Jim Crow kept blacks and whites from learning together, playing or eating meals together, working or riding buses or trains together, worshiping with one another, even going up and down in the same elevator or throwing a ball back and forth in the same park. Black and white citizens drank water from separate fountains and used different bathrooms. They were forbidden to play sports on the same team, marry one another, or swim together in the same pool.Some of the segregation laws didn't matter too much in the daily lives of black citizens, but the bus was different. Riding the bus was like having a sore tooth that never quit aching. Montgomery's neighborhoods were spread out, and the maids and "yard boys"-people like Claudette Colvin's parents who scraped together a few dollars a day by attending to the needs of white families-depended on the buses to reach the homes of their white employers. Thousands of students also rode the buses to school from the time they were little, learning the transfer points and schedules by heart.They gathered in clusters at the corners, chatting and teasing and cramming for tests, until the green and gold buses chugged into view and the doors snapped open. Most blacks had to ride the bus. But everything about riding a bus was humiliating for black passengers. All riders entered through the front door and dropped their dimes in the fare box near the driver. But, unless the entire white section was empty, blacks alone had to get back off the bus and reenter through the rear door. Sometimes the driver pulled away while black passengers were still standing outside.In other Southern cities, like Atlanta and Nashville and Mobile, black passengers sat in the back and whites sat in the front of the bus, with the two groups coming together in the middle as the bus filled up. When all the seats were taken, riders of both races stood.But Montgomery had its own rules and traditions. Here, each bus had thirty-six seats. The first four rows of seats, which held ten passengers, were reserved for white passengers only. Day after day weary black passengers remained standing over empty seats in front. Trying to hold on to their packages and small children, they jostled for balance even as the aisles became jammed with dozens of seatless passengers. Seating behind the first ten seats was up to the driver, who constantly glanced into the mirror above his head to keep track of who was sitting where. If the ten white seats in front were filled, the driver ordered ...
I swear to the Lord
I still can't see
Why Democracy means
Everybody but me.
-Langston HughesClaudette Colvin: I was about four years old the first time I ever saw what happened when you acted up to whites. I was standing in line at the general store when this little white boy cut in front of me. Then some older white kids came in through the door and started laughing. I turned around to see what they were laughing at. They were pointing at me. The little white boy said, "Let me see, let me see, too." For some reason they all wanted to see my hands. I held my hands up, palms out, and he put his hands up against my hands. Touched them. The older kids doubled up laughing. My mother saw us, and she saw that the boy's mother was watching. Then my mom came straight across the room, raised her hand, and gave me a backhand slap across my face. I burst into tears. She said, "Don't you know you're not supposed to touch them?" The white boy's mother nodded at my mom and said, "That's right, Mary." That's how I learned I should never touch another white person again.• • •If, like Claudette Colvin, you grew up black in central Alabama during the 1940s and 1950s, Jim Crow controlled your life from womb to tomb. Black and white babies were born in separate hospitals, lived their adult lives apart from one another, and were buried in separate cemeteries. The races were segregated by a dense, carefully woven web of laws, signs, partitions, arrows, ordinances, unequal opportunities, rules, insults, threats, and customs-often backed up by violence. Together, the whole system of racial segregation was known as "Jim Crow."Jim Crow's job was not only to separate the races but to keep blacks poor. In 1950, nearly three in five black women in Montgomery, Alabama's capital city, worked as maids for white families, and almost three-quarters of employed black men mowed lawns and did other kinds of unskilled labor. The average black worker made about half as much money as the average white. "The only professional jobs... open to blacks were... pastoring a black church and schoolteaching, which was open because of segregated schools," recalled the Reverend Ralph Abernathy, the minister of the First Baptist Church in Montgomery during the 1950s.Jim Crow kept blacks and whites from learning together, playing or eating meals together, working or riding buses or trains together, worshiping with one another, even going up and down in the same elevator or throwing a ball back and forth in the same park. Black and white citizens drank water from separate fountains and used different bathrooms. They were forbidden to play sports on the same team, marry one another, or swim together in the same pool.Some of the segregation laws didn't matter too much in the daily lives of black citizens, but the bus was different. Riding the bus was like having a sore tooth that never quit aching. Montgomery's neighborhoods were spread out, and the maids and "yard boys"-people like Claudette Colvin's parents who scraped together a few dollars a day by attending to the needs of white families-depended on the buses to reach the homes of their white employers. Thousands of students also rode the buses to school from the time they were little, learning the transfer points and schedules by heart.They gathered in clusters at the corners, chatting and teasing and cramming for tests, until the green and gold buses chugged into view and the doors snapped open. Most blacks had to ride the bus. But everything about riding a bus was humiliating for black passengers. All riders entered through the front door and dropped their dimes in the fare box near the driver. But, unless the entire white section was empty, blacks alone had to get back off the bus and reenter through the rear door. Sometimes the driver pulled away while black passengers were still standing outside.In other Southern cities, like Atlanta and Nashville and Mobile, black passengers sat in the back and whites sat in the front of the bus, with the two groups coming together in the middle as the bus filled up. When all the seats were taken, riders of both races stood.But Montgomery had its own rules and traditions. Here, each bus had thirty-six seats. The first four rows of seats, which held ten passengers, were reserved for white passengers only. Day after day weary black passengers remained standing over empty seats in front. Trying to hold on to their packages and small children, they jostled for balance even as the aisles became jammed with dozens of seatless passengers. Seating behind the first ten seats was up to the driver, who constantly glanced into the mirror above his head to keep track of who was sitting where. If the ten white seats in front were filled, the driver ordered ...
