Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
By Phillip Hoose

This was a well written non-fiction story of a remarkable young teenager that I did not know much about the character, except she was one of the four in the trial that helped rid segregation on the buses in Montgomery for human rights. How come history for such a long time decided to overlook such an important person’s role in the change of the society we live in? We know everything about Rosa Parks but had it not been for Claudette’s brave actions would the story had been much different and would we all know Rosa Parks as well as we do today? In reading the book I jotted down words to describe her character including smart, inquisitive, wonderer, tomboy, integrity, self-respect, self-confidence, brave, courageous and a girl nick-named Coot. This book dealt with ethnic and culture diversity and you couldn’t help but empathize with Claudette and all the many hardships she went through and for many years never given the credit she deserved except to be known as a feisty and immature angry teenager, who just wasn’t the right catalyst boycott leader as the respected Rosa Parks, nine months later when she took action on the bus. I liked how the book changed from the narrator telling her story to Claudette and other characters from the story speaking up from what they recalled during that time period and how they felt. Also, just to mention other important people in history who were brutally hurt or killed and share their story was just heart drenching. Even the part about the character, Juliette Morgan the white librarian publishing a statement she said in an article about the blacks and she was threatened and bothered, abandoned by friends till she finally took her own life. It was interesting to learn that the character Jim Crow was just taken from a song and used in the minstrel shows, yet it evolved into the term to represent the whole system of laws and customs segregating whites and blacks. I loved her quotes that came straight from the heart, like “The biggest mystery of all was how the white man came to dominate us.” She admired Harriet Tubman and that character was mentioned a few times throughout the book. She had the courage the adults didn’t have to take a stand at the young age of 15; same age as my own daughter. I can imagine her crying out, “It’s my constitutional right!” and thinking this is what they taught us in school yet it doesn’t apply to some people, why? For her to take a stand like that, knowing she could’ve been killed and yet even her own people thought her action was more of a hindrance and made it harder on everyone had to really hurt Claudette even more. You had the embarrassed parents that realized it took a teenager to take a stand. She had attitude with the way she then quit straightening her “African” hair because she was proud of it and fed up with just about everyone from both sides. You look at how this teen was dragged off the bus, handcuffed and thrown in jail all the while shouting, ”It’s my constitutional right” and then look at Rosa Park. She simply asked, “Why do you push us around? “And they answer “I don’t know but the law is the law and you are under arrest.” And then they even help to carry her bags as they give her a ride in the police car, not hand-cuffed. The character, Fred Gray later said that, “I don’t mean to take anything away from Mrs. Parks, but Claudette gave all of us the moral courage to do what we did.” Was just being a teen not given the respect she deserved as she stood for her rights and then when she became pregnant she was totally shunned? Yes, Rosa was “safe” and level headed but why didn’t Claudette receive the honor Rosa did when they stood for the same thing and Claudette was there to take a stand first and then they even spell her name wrong? What a moving story and the plot throughout the book! I read the book straight without putting it down because I wanted to know the whole story and the pictures were worth a thousand words and just as touching as her story. Full of amazing characters whose stories need to be told. I couldn’t have read this book at a better time. I was at Litchfield Beach and Golf Resort where as the wedding party we stayed and attended a relatives’ wedding and as I went to the Pool complex I sat in the huge hot tub with a diverse group of people from all over the country and it made me ponder about this would have never happened back in the ‘50’s where we all shared the same facilities at this fancy resort. I sat directly across from a beautiful 15 year old girl, who I thought looked just like Janet Jackson in the face, and couldn’t help but think about Claudette and how she helped to make this all happen when we look at each other as being equal as it should be. Great characters and a great plot; a must to be read and teens will love it!