Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Before I wrote a blog about this book during the Spring semester, I had never heard of Claudette Colvin. After I wrote the blog, I saw this book at the public library, checked it out and read some of it before I got too busy with the end of the semester. Now I have read all of it, and I wonder how did she get buried over time when civil rights are discussed. Just the fact that she was a teenager and not an adult should have ensured her name was remembered. When it comes to segregation and all of that, I, like everybody else, only remember Rosa Parks. I read in the book that Parks was a secretary for the Montgomery NAACP. Well, there you have it. I believe that is why she has been credited all these years when she refused to give up her seat in December 1955. I have never thought segregation was right anyway. They may have said "separate but equal" but everybody knows that was not so. The book did a good job bringing out the problems the blacks experienced at the time and how they stuck together to fight for their rights. Those rights should have been granted to them long before the 1950's. Teachers could use this book during the month of February when Black History Month is observed. Young people should identify with Colvin's teenage ideas and emotions during a difficult time. This book was definitely long overdue. Winning several book awards will also ensure Colvin's story will be investigated, read, discussed, and most of all remembered.