Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

[Set-up room for a RE-ENACTMENT of March 2, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, in the vicinity of Bibb and Commerce Streets: chairs=bus seats, student volunteers=bus driver, black girl in the 11th grade, friends, white woman in her forties, two policemen, riders black and white. Narrate the scene as students take their places.]

There were basically two separate worlds in Montgomery back in 1955. One was white, one black. A divisive hatred lived on for decades in the South after the Civil War. If you went to a sporting event you might be surprised to see some white folks not stand up for the Star Spangled Banner, but they would for Dixie, a song often played in the South since the Civil War. If a black man looked at a white woman directly in the eye, the black man would be in big trouble. Whites and blacks had separate bathrooms, schools, restaurants, and movie theaters. The system of laws that divide whites and blacks is known as segregation. These laws also had another name-Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws even applied to those that rode the city bus everyday.

The front four rows on a city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955, were reserved for whites only. Even if the front seats were open, black riders could not occupy them. If the reserved seats were full, the bus driver would yell to the back of the bus for black riders to give up their seats for additional white riders. For years the city ordinance stated clearly that no rider had to give up a seat unless there was another seat available. In reality the ordinance didn't matter. Bus drivers would still yell: "I need that seat!" To ride a city bus, blacks would enter and pay the fare, and then, unless there were no whites on board, they had to reenter the bus through the back door. Black riders had to stand if the back of the bus filled-up even though seats were available up front. Laws in the South that divided people by race basically gave permission for one race to rule over the other as bullies.

On March 2nd, 1955, an 11th grade girl and her high school friends stepped up to the driver, paid their fare, and proceded straight down the aisle. They took their seats in the same row behind the reserved section. No whites were on board, yet. Gradually the bus filled up with more riders. Many eventually had to stand. A white woman stood by the girl. The woman expected the girl to give up her seat despite the fact that the seat was behind the reserved section.

The bus driver noticed the awkward situation and barked to the girl and her friends: "I need those seats."

Her friends got up, but she didn't. The white woman wouldn't sit down until all the seats in that row were unoccupied by blacks.

The girl didn't plan for this to happen. The girl just decided she wasn't going to take it anymore. Why should she give up her seat just because she was black? The girl knew the rule-she didn't have to give up her seat if all the seats on the bus were full.

The bus driver barked again: "Why are you still sittin there?" "Gimme that seat!" He then alerted the authorities.

At the intersection of Bibb and Commerce Streets, a squad car waited. Two Montgomery policemen climbed aboard. Everyone held their breath.

"Aren't you going to get up?," one said.

"No sir," the girl replied.

"Get up!," he commanded.

"It's my constitutional right to sit here."

The two policemen grabbed an arm each and pulled the girl straight up out of her seat. School books and papers flew everywhere. She went limp. She didn't fight back; she was too smart for that. One of the policemen kicked her.

The girl repeatedly cried out as she was pulled out of the bus: "It's my constitutional right! It's my constitutional right! It's my constit......."

The ride to the police station would be far worse. Insults, accusations, and threats were hurled at the girl by the policemen. They even pretended to take her directly to prison instead of the police station.

Why had she acted so impulsively? What would her parents think? What would the kids at school think? Did she do the right thing? There would be consequences. According to police the girl violated segregation laws, disturbed the peace and assaulted two policemen. (They claimed that the girl scratched and kicked them.)

After bail was posted she was released from jail. The 11th grader returned to her school, but a hero's welcome did not greet her. She was shunned, not celebrated. She should have been treated as a civil rights pioneer, but instead was treated as an outcast by some of her classmates.

Who was she? Who was this girl that stood before bullies that tried to force her out of the bus seat? Her lawyer remarked that this girl had more courage than any other person involved in the movement. Who was this girl that gave another young woman, almost a year later, the courage to do the same thing on a different Montgomery city bus? The young woman is still reverred, but not the girl.

Before Martin Luther King Jr. became the face of the Civil Rights movement, almost a year before Rosa Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, there was a teenage girl named Claudette Colvin. She was the girl. Like the unknown source to a mighty river, Claudette Colvin was the unknown source of inspiraton that helped lead the way for Rosa Parks and others in the city of Montgomery to stand up for their rights. Discover more about a story that will no longer exist as just a footnote in Civil Rights history, in, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice, by Phillip Hoose.


Check out the video on Claudette Colvin and the book written by Phillip Hoose.

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

I haven't said too much about the Percy Jackson series on BCBOOKTalk. The books sell themselves. Lightning Thief has been one of the most checked out books in our library since the beginning of last year. For those of you that haven't read it yet, I thought I should mention the movie that is coming out in February. I always recommend reading the book first, and maybe the movie trailer might convince you to quick check it out before the movie premiers on Feb. 12th.

Go to: http://www.foxinternational.com/percyjackson/ to see the preview.

Truce by Jim Murphy, War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, and Day of the Assassins by Johnny O'Brien

The Blindside is one of my favorite movies of the year. The inspirational movie is based on the true rags-to-riches story of Michael Oher. Today, Michael Oher is a successful offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the NFL, but as a child Michael courageously faced a daily life of adversity and tragedy.He was poor and he lacked the education most kids his age deserve. His future looked bleak when suddenly his circumstances changed because of the generosity of a well-to-do family that took Michael into their home. The family eventually adopted him.

Like other movies that are based on a true story, this one probably took dramatic license with some of the details. One powerful scene from the movie showed how Michael struggled to write an essay that would qualify him for college. He chose to write an essay on the poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred Lord Tennyson. The poem is about 600 brave British cavalry soldiers that charge with horse and sabre against an enemy that fires back with rifle and canon. Flesh and blood against metal and gunpowder. Guess who wins.

"Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell,
Rode the six hundred."

Duty, honor, courage. These qualities are important to Michael Oher. They mean something. However, did 600 soldiers on the backs of horses have a chance against bullets and canon shells? Not a chance. As I reflect on the movie, Blindside, I'm inspired, but as I reflect on the poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, the more I get... disturbed. The men of the light brigade obeyed orders. They fulfilled their duty. They were honored for their courage. They looked death directly in the eye as the fog of war surrounded them, but how can we ignore the insanity of the one who gave the order for that suicidal charge?

I would now like to turn your attention to a new non-fiction book about World War 1 called, Truce, by Jim Murphy. The book concisely describes what World War 1 was like but also points to significant and strange incident that occurred, as if a giant heavenly hand pressed the pause button in the middle of the war. I am referring to the incident that occurred in 1914 when soldiers from both sides decided not to follow orders so they could briefly honor peace-on-earth and good-will-toward-men. It is now called the Christmas Truce of 1914.



Duty, honor, courage, and even excitement were good enough reasons for many to volunteer by the hundreds of thousands to fight World War 1. Yet, once they saw No Man's Land, that barren crater-pocked barb-wired field of death that laid a few hundred yards between both sides, many questioned to themselves what they were fighting for.

World War 1 is somewhat of a mystery to some. Ask someone about World War 2 and you'll get a response, but ask what World War 1 was about, not many will tell you. Another reason it may more mysterious than World War 2 may be the fact that both ancient and modern methods of war were used. Modern methods used included poison gas, tanks, planes, and machine guns. What many of you might not know is that horses played a prominent role in World War 1.

Horses were used to move artillery. Horses were used to move the wounded. At the beginning of the war horses were even used in cavalry charges, like in, The Charge of the Light Brigade. Can you imagine mounted cavalry going against a line of machine gunners nested in protective trenches [p.23]? Slaughter. Eventually generals on both sides figured out that horses didn't have a chance against machine guns. Yet, the generals never did figure out that sending soldiers across a No-Man's-Land against machine guns and artillery fire was equally ineffective.

World War 1 basically turned into a war fought between two opposing sides dug into trenches that shot at each other everyday. Occasionally one side would try to charge across No Man's Land until most of them were mowed down by machine guns, rifle fire, shrapnel or poison gas. Those that survived would retreat to plan their next suicidal mission. Slaughter.

The insanity of how World War 1 was fought may explain the strange truce informally declared that first Christmas of the war. The generals on both sides forbade their soldiers to stop fighting on Christmas, but on December 24th, songs like Silent Night and the First Noel broke the silence of cold air separating enemy trenches. Instead of flashes of light from bombs and gunfire, candle light glowed from trenches across the barren No Man's Land. Almost along the entire war front soldiers disobeyed orders and refused to fight on the Christmas Truce of World War 1. [p.60]

When news of this remarkable event reached back to the generals they were furious. Truce, by Jim Murphy, is a remarkable story of how a moment of sanity prevailed for one brief moment in the midst of the War to End All Wars.

On the subjects of World War 1 and horses, I would also like to recommend, War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo.



War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo, is told from first person point of view, or should I say 1st horse point of view. In this book, a story about World War 1 is told from the point of view of a horse named Joey. Joey is an impressive steed. A British Captain knew Joey would be a valuable addition when he bought him from the farm family who had to sell the horse or lose their farm. In chapter 8, we find Joey trained and ready to play his part in a British cavalry brigade. Joey likes Captain Nichols and despite the fact that he is a big man the captain knows how to ride light on Joey.

News quickly spread. The enemy had been sighted. Orders were given.

"Forward! Form squadron column! Draw swords!"

Then you can imagine Joey's heart pumping as he says:

"Out of the corner of my eye, I was aware of the glint of Captain Nicholls's sword. I felt his spurs in my side, and I heard his battle cry. I saw gray soldiers ahead of us raise their rifles and heard the death rattle of a machine gun, and then quite suddenly I found that I had no rider, that I had no weight on my back anymore, and that I was alone out in front of the squadron."

Brave horse that he was, Joey continued galloping right into the kneeling riflemen that scattered as he came upon them. As Joey looked behind him, bodies of soldiers and horses were strewn everywhere. In their first action, over a quarter of the squadron had been wiped out. Horses were no match for machine guns, but at the beginning of the war some thought they only wanted to win the war if the cavalry could win it. Did they forget what happened in, The Charge of the Light Brigade?

Will Joey have the courage to face another charge against an enemy with machine guns? What will happen to him if he is wounded? Will Joey survive World War 1 and ever see his farm family again?

If you like war stories, I would recommend War Horse, by Michael Morpurgo.



Related Website:

Information on a musical about the Christmas Truce at MPR.


Bonus Book: Day of the Assassins by Johnny O'Brien



If you are looking for another fiction book about World War 1 and don't mind a little time-travel thrown in, I'd like to suggest, Day of the Assassins, to you. Find out how an assassination of one man led to one of the bloodiest wars in human history.