History is not always what it seems

Nelson Mandela. Rosa Parks. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X. What do they have in common? Apart from being a reminder of movements against segregation and racial discrimination, they represent the power that individuals have in leading and representing a place, time, and historical event.

Taking a closer look at Rosa Parks, known for her activism in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, she represents the epitome of the Montgomery bus boycott. Yet what if I told you that she wasn’t the first black person to refuse to give up their seat to a white person in efforts to call out racial injustice. This fact alone rewrites what we perceive to be a definitive moment in time, and who we perceive to be a representative of this.

15-year-old Claudette Colvin left her segregated school in Montgomery, Alabama on 2nd March 1955, and boarded a bus which soon required her to give up her seat to a young white woman. Upon refusing to do so, motivated by the fact that the woman whom she was expected to give up her seat for, required it for no other reason than being perceived by society as more deserving over a black person, she argued for her constitutional rights, but was swiftly removed from the bus by two police officers, and detained in an adult jail, despite being a minor.

“It felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other shoulder.” Claudette Colvin

Very few people heard of Colvin’s case at the time, yet when Rosa Parks embarked on the same journey to challenge racist segregation laws, her experience made headlines in various newspapers across America. During the 1950s, Rosa Parks was secretary of the local division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and many attribute her role as a symbol of anti-segregation to her already-established position as an activist. Historian David Garrow has explained that Parks had a “natural gravitas” and she was an “inherently impressive person.” While both Rosa and Claudette suffered the same experience - Claudette arguably worse having been a young teenager - the difference comes in how the two incidents were willing to be perceived by society. Claudette herself had mentioned that “she [Rosa Parks] was an adult. They didn't think teenagers would be reliable." and that "Her skin texture was the kind that people associate with the middle class...she fit that profile."

Evidently, the disparity between the treatment which the two cases received in isolation does not come from their differing severity, but may perhaps be attributed to a political incentive.

So when we think of the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955, it is clear that Rosa Parks’ involvement in spearheading the movement is a zoomed in focus on one aspect of history. This movement reminds us that an entire community suffered at the hands of segregation laws and institutional racism.

The intent of looking at Claudette Colvin’s experience is not to discredit Rosa Parks’ involvement in the movement, or replace it with Claudette’s, but instead to serve as a reminder that history may sometimes be in the eye of the beholder. So, if this part of history has been presented in a way which uses a certain woman as a symbol perhaps not for her actions, which were evidently emulated by others before her, but for what she represented as an individual, then we should endeavour to ensure we’re looking objectively at the whole truth.

Although icons like Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr. and George Floyd have suffered in the name of a cause, we must not fail to remember that they represent masses who endured the same treatment. They should be acknowledged and respected for the treatment they underwent in the face of change, yet not credited solely for the collective struggle faced by the vast demographic in which they belong to. Remember those who came before you, and the journeys they embarked on which has defined history. But in doing so, do not forget that they were not alone.

-Charlotte Rodney 12E