History's Unsung Witnesses: The Stories Behind the Headlines

how many times does history repeat the first draft of a story before it settles on the one we all remember oh that's a beautiful way to put it it auditions people for roles they don't even know they're trying out for exactly it's a pattern we see everywhere you know last week we talked about charles alton ellis the engineer who did all the math for the golden gate bridge but was erased from the story today we're looking at another first draft a different stage a different struggle but a very similar kind of erasure montgomery alabama nineteen fifty five 03/02/1955 a 15 year old girl named claudette colvin gets on a city bus after school she's tired

she sits down in the colored section but it's a few rows ahead of the very back and this is key the seats weren't fixed the line between the white section and the colored section could be moved by the bus driver at will if more white passengers got on the driver could demand black passengers give up their seats and move further back which is precisely what happens a white woman gets on the bus is full and the driver orders claudette and the women in her row to get up the others move claudette doesn't she said she felt like sojourner truth's hands were on one shoulder and harriet tubman's were on the other pushing her down she

just couldn't move she said it's my constitutional right at fifteen at fifteen the driver called the police two officers dragged her off the bus kicking and screaming and arrested her she was charged with violating the segregation law disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer this was nine months before rosa parks made her famous stand on the very same bus system so the obvious question the one that hangs over this entire story is why rosa parks why not claudette colvin because the leaders of the nascent civil rights movement in montgomery were looking for the perfect symbol they needed a plaintiff who was in their eyes unimpeachable someone the white press couldn't tear apart and a

teenager a passionate fiery teenager who had been charged with assault even if unjustly didn't fit the profile it was more complicated than that soon after her arrest claudette became pregnant and the leaders men like e d nixon knew that a pregnant unmarried teenager would be a public relations disaster they believed her personal life would be used to discredit the entire movement it's a brutal calculation you have this person who showed immense courage who did the thing everyone was talking about doing and the movement she inspired has to sideline her for strategic reasons it's the pattern of the unimpeachable plaintiff the legal battle isn't just fought on facts it's fought on image

it is and they found their perfect image in rosa parks a 42 year old respected quiet married seamstress when she was arrested that december the machinery was ready to go the montgomery bus boycott begins but here's the part of the story that gets lost the part where claudette gets her justice exactly the boycott was powerful it showed economic force but the legal battle to actually end segregation on the buses that was a federal lawsuit called browder versus gale and who do you think was one of the four key plaintiffs who testified in that case claudette colvin claudette colvin she along with three other women who had been abused on the bus system

told their stories in a federal court she was no longer a symbol or a problematic teenager she was a witness her testimony her courage was entered into the permanent record and that was the case that went all the way to the supreme court that was the case that legally desegregated buses not just in montgomery but across the united states the boycott created the pressure but browder v gale delivered the knockout blow and claudette colvin was right at the heart of it she was too young too unrefined to be the face of the movement but her testimony was strong enough to help change the laws of the nation she never got the headlines she lived a

very quiet life afterwards for decades her story was basically a footnote it makes you wonder how many other footnotes are out there people who took the first step who absorbed the first blow and then watched someone else cross the finish line she said it herself years later she said i'm not disappointed let the people know rosa parks was the right person for the boycott but she added let them know i was the first she just wanted the story to be told right and history is after all just the story we agree to tell it seems her chapter is finally being written back in