| Every schoolchild knows the story of Rosa Parks. But few of us have heard of Claudette Colvin, a 15-year-old Montgomery, Ala., girl who was arrested in March 1955, nine months before Parks, when she refused a bus driver's order to give up her bus seat to a White girl. "My three seatmates got up, but I felt glued to the seat," Colvin, now 82, recalled in an affidavit filed Tuesday to have her "indefinite probation" finally revoked. "People think it was just about a seat on a bus but it was about so much more than that. It was about my constitutional rights. It was about history. It was about injustices that I personally witnessed every day." Columnist Michele Norris uses Colvin's own words to tell us her story — and suggest some uncomfortable reasons why Parks became a national icon, "the mother of the civil right movement," while Colvin is largely forgotten. "Her story was largely expunged because civil rights leaders didn't see her as an appropriate symbol for the movement," Norris writes. "Colvin got pregnant not long after her arrest. And she was defiant. She was also charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer who said she had kicked and scratched him." And there was, Colvin believed, something else at work: "Rosa Parks had the right background and the right skin color," she told Norris. Read Colvin's story — and remember her name.  Claudette Colvin as a teenager. (Family photo) Colvin, 82, is headed to court in Montgomery, Ala., to petition for her record to be cleared. By Michele L. Norris ● Read more » | | | | Biden the candidate promised to overturn his predecessor's tax cuts, but as president he's on the verge of perpetuating most of them. By Charles Lane ● Read more » | | | | Tensions over the credit reflect not just flawed Democratic messaging about the initiative but also Americans' skewed perceptions of benefits programs. By Helaine Olen ● Read more » | | | | Regulation of social media ultimately is on us — the users. By David Ignatius ● Read more » | | | Threats against election workers do not bode well for our democratic future. By Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | | Data from the FDA refutes the false narrative that children are not at risk of covid-19. By Leana S. Wen ● Read more » | | | | By some measures, West Virginia is more reliant on the federal government than any other state. By Karen Tumulty ● Read more » | | | | Progressives will surely amplify their outrage this term. But they don't represent public opinion. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | | Contrary to the assertion of abortion opponents, at the time the 14th Amendment was ratified most states allowed abortion until "quickening," around 15 weeks. By Aaron Tang ● Read more » | | | There are reasons the so-called wealth tax, tried in other countries, hasn't lived up to expectations. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | | Human fallibility and random timing produced tragedy for Alec Baldwin and Halyna Hutchins. How some chose to react to it is a different story. By Kathleen Parker ● Read more » | | | | The administration claims its economic policies are working. In fact, the opposite is true. By Marc A. Thiessen ● Read more » | | | |
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