Who Came First? Rosa or Claudette?

And what sparked the civil rights movement? Depends on who you talk to and what you're reading. Emmett Louis Till's lynching certainly started something in Mississippi. Rosa Parks started the bus boycott in Alabama that certainly started civil rights in Alabama, with Martin Luther King's endorsement.

But did you know Claudette Colvin threw a bus fit before Rosa? Well, it was several months before that Claudette did technically. But, civil rights leaders wanted to pick their battles wisely. Unfortunately for Claudette, she was a feisty fifteen year old at the time. She was dragged off the bus by police kicking and screaming. Additionally, a few months after the incident, she was pregnant by a much older man. I have to give credit to civil rights leaders, they wanted to make sure the person who would represent their cause in court would be a bit more polished.

But you know what, the bus boycott was in the making and set the stage for Rosa a few months after Claudette. It was not just Rosa who was frustrated over bus rules, and Claudette shined a light on that.

So while she wasn't immortalized like Rosa, we raise our hats to Claudette. It gives us hope that feisty teenagers can accomplish much and even get their moment of fame decades later. Here is the link where I found this little known piece of history.