Claudette Colvin Read Online Free PDF

had thesame attitude. She’d say, “I’m a real African. I’m a pure-blooded African.” She was proud of it. She taught us all the different nations of Africa and the periods of African history. It all made sense to me. I wasn’t ashamed of my thick lips and broad nose and coarse hair. I had always thought God made our features so we could be comfortable in the hot African sun.
    BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION
OF TOPEKA
    Linda Brown was a third-grade student who lived in Topeka, Kansas. She had to walk five long blocks to her school every day, even though she lived much closer to a school for whites only. Linda’s father sued the city government to let her go to the all-white school. The case was combined with several similar cases around the country, and it was argued all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, under the title
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
.
    Lawyers from the NAACP represented Linda and the other black students. On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled 9–0 that segregated schools did not give black students an equal chance for a good education. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote on behalf of the nine justices: “We conclude, unanimously, that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” Some school systems integrated smoothly, but other communities took as long as twenty years to open the school doors to all students.
    Little by little, I began to form a mission for myself. I was going be like Harriet Tubman and go North to liberate my people. I admired Harriet Tubman more than anyone else I read about—her courage, the pistol she wore, the fact that she never lost a passenger on the Underground Railroad. I wasn’t going to go to Alabama State College, where they taught you how to teach school but didn’t teach you how to get your freedom. We had nothing but preachers and teachers in the South. I was going to do something different. I was going to be a lawyer. My mom always said I could outtalk any forty lawyers—I agreed it would be a good fit.
    In 1955, my junior year, Miss Nesbitt and Miss Lawrence team-taught Negro History Week. We really got into it. We spent that whole February talking about the injustices we black people suffered every day in Montgomery—it was total immersion. My parents had only gone to sixth grade—they’d never had a chance for a class discussion like that. So I was grateful for it, and totally receptive. I was done talking about “good hair” and “good skin” but not addressing our grievances. I was tired of adults complaining about how badly they were treated and not doing anything about it. I’d had enough of just feeling angry about Jeremiah Reeves. I was tired of hoping for justice.
    When my moment came, I was ready.

    A Birmingham, Alabama, city bus. Two separate worlds within one vehicle

CHAPTER FOUR
“I T’S M Y C ONSTITUTIONAL R IGHT !”
    Early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise
.          —Malcolm X
    March 2, 1955
    C LAUDETTE AND HER CLASSMATES got out of school early that Wednesday because of a faculty meeting. When she stepped outside, the afternoon air was warm and muggy, already like summer. Claudette spotted some friends and ran to catch up with them. The group walked together for a few blocks, then got on the Highland Gardens bus at Dexter Avenue and Bainbridge Street. She handed the driver her pink coupon, which allowed a student to ride for five cents—half fare. Since there were no whites in the front of the bus, she and her classmates walked straight down the aisle without getting off.
    Claudette slid into a window seat on the left side, near the exit door and about halfway back. A schoolmate plopped down beside her, and two other Booker T. Washington students took the