On this day, 5 September 1939, Black civil rights activist and nurse Claudette Colvin was born in Montgomery, Alabama. When she was 15 she was arrested and convicted for refusing to give up her seat on a bus which she had been ordered to vacate for white passengers, several months before Rosa Parks (content note: sexual violence). However, civil rights leaders decided not to make a cause célèbre of her case after she became pregnant from a statutory rape, fearing negative publicity. Some local activists also believe that Colvin’s dark skin was a factor in not choosing to take on her case.
Pictured: Colvin around the age of 15, and more recently. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1801008140084328/?type=3
