workingclasshistory:

On this day, 2 March 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old African-American woman refused to give up her seat on a bus which she had been ordered to vacate for white passengers. She was arrested by police and charged with multiple offences for violating the city’s segregation laws. Leaders of the black community considered attempting to make her case a cause celebre, and a test case for the civil rights movement. However Claudette’s dark skin and working class background caused concern, and when she became pregnant from a statutory rape the leadership decided against pursuing her case. When Rosa Parks – educated, married and lighter-skinned – was arrested later that year, civil rights leaders had their standard-bearer.
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