Althouse: "But local civil rights leaders decided not to make Ms. Colvin their symbol of discrimination."

January 14, 2026

"But local civil rights leaders decided not to make Ms. Colvin their symbol of discrimination."

"She was, she later said, too dark-skinned and too poor to win the crucial support of Montgomery’s Black middle class. (She was not, as some later claimed, pregnant at the time, though she did become pregnant later that year.) Instead, the leaders waited...."

From "Claudette Colvin, Who Refused to Give Her Bus Seat to a White Woman, Dies at 86/Her defiance of Jim Crow laws in 1955 made her a star witness in a landmark segregation suit, but her act was overshadowed months later when Rosa Parks made history with a similar stand" (NYT).

41 comments:

Leland said...: Straight up discrimination.; 1/14/26, 11:39 AM
n.n said...: Diversity, Equivocation, and other Inanities (DEI). #HateLovesAbortion, too.; 1/14/26, 11:40 AM
Achilles said...: Imagine what happens during the civil rights movement if we have social media.

Then think how it goes differently after Elon buys X.; 1/14/26, 11:40 AM
Aggie said...: You mean, it was just a game after all?; 1/14/26, 11:42 AM
PM said...: There's a lot of stupidity in our country, but at least no longer that.; 1/14/26, 11:46 AM
Aggie said...: I wonder if part of it was her age - at 15, perhaps she was less likely to be taken seriously as a civil rights protestor and more easily discredited as a juvenile delinquent. Rosa was in her 40's.; 1/14/26, 11:50 AM
Kevin said...: Imagine how many interracial couples were denied justice because they were not named Loving.; 1/14/26, 11:51 AM
rehajm said...: …that kid leaned into the barking dog, too…; 1/14/26, 11:53 AM
Ralph L said...: NYT reports that Emmet Till is still dead.; 1/14/26, 12:02 PM
Beasts of England said...: For those of you without any close friends of color: ‘tone’ is very important, i.e., ‘That baby got good tone!’.

And no, I’m not employing a black patois, that’s the exact quote my friend used when describing its importance. And she had very nice tone.; 1/14/26, 12:15 PM
gilbar said...: and WHO WAS Rosa Parks?
and WHY did they pick Her?
and WHY did she decide to refuse to give up her seat?

"..When Parks was arrested in 1955, local leaders were searching for a person who would be a good legal test case against segregation. She was deemed a suitable candidate.."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks; 1/14/26, 12:17 PM
john mosby said...: Weren't a lot of the big civil rights cases more or less collusive? Like the white establishment realized Jim Crow was just costing them money, but they didn't want to lose the support of poor whites. So court cases enabled them to blame everything on a third party.

The white establishment probably really believed in keeping the universities segregated, though, because they didn't lose money by keeping black students out, and they really didn't want to let more people of any color into the elite flagship schools. CC, JSM; 1/14/26, 12:21 PM
Narr said...: Damn, you mean them coloreds was able to think strategically and make the system work for them?; 1/14/26, 12:42 PM
john mosby said...: Air conditioning. It allowed the blacks to sit and think and strategize, and kept the whites from being so damn angry all the time. CC, JSM; 1/14/26, 12:46 PM
n.n said...: The visible irony of colored optics.; 1/14/26, 12:57 PM
Jupiter said...: Ah yes. We went from Rosa Parks having to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery to Iryna Zarutska having to give up her life on the train in Charlottesville. O pioneers!; 1/14/26, 1:13 PM
Beasts of England said...: In 1963 my Dad was getting his Masters in applied statistics* at Alabama when George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse door. As the highest ranking regular Army officer in Tuscaloosa - a Major at the time, I believe - he was made the commander for National Guard operations and our house served as headquarters.

I don’t have any specific memories from the time other than something important was happening and we had to stay in our rooms. And, don’t tell anybody, but my Dad was a damned Yankee and hated Southerners, especially Wallace.

*Only two universities in the country offered that degree at the time: Harvard and Alabama. Even though he graduated in the top quarter of his class at West Point, Harvard didn’t accept him and he was not thrilled about heading to T-Town. lol; 1/14/26, 1:22 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Honestly, who gives a damn. this happened 70 years ago. At least the NYT's didn't print an obit for someone who knew Emmitt Till.; 1/14/26, 1:25 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: But hey, this gives the boomers another chance to tell you they really, really, really hate racism. Remember that time they told racist Grandma that Negroes were people too?; 1/14/26, 1:26 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: Oh sorry for using the wrong word. "Negroes" what was I thinking! I meant Afro-American.; 1/14/26, 1:28 PM
Beasts of England said...: And my Dad was working for McNamara at the time, whose idea it was for the stats degree, and was one of the Whiz Kids.; 1/14/26, 1:32 PM
MadisonMan said...: If you're looking to overturn the status quo, it makes a lot of sense to take your best shot, and the first shot is not always best.; 1/14/26, 1:33 PM
Howard said...: Theo Von calls Colin Kaepernick Throsa Parks. Just sayin'.; 1/14/26, 1:37 PM
narciso said...: How about that.; 1/14/26, 1:54 PM
Enigma said...: EVERYTHING in politics was stage-managed party theater prior to the Drudge Report and leaked Lewinsky stained blue dress (1998). Then, Trump became the first social media tweeting President. The last 25 years have mainly involved the powerful defending their reputations in the face of technology changes. Stage management was relatively easy for popes and kings back in the day.; 1/14/26, 2:01 PM
Grundoon said...: The longer I live I learn history is fake. I bet George Washington never cut down a cherry tree.; 1/14/26, 2:10 PM
n.n said...: The Diverse models of political congruence ("=").; 1/14/26, 2:17 PM
n.n said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/14/26, 3:27 PM
n.n said...: Civil rights vs human rites with social progress. Choice.; 1/14/26, 3:28 PM
Ralph L said...: ‘tone’ is very important

I remember when black women were trying to have children as pale as possible. Haven't heard much about that for a decade. They ought to be chasing nerds, East Asians, Brahmins (Harris notwithstanding), and Ashkenazis for higher IQs.; 1/14/26, 4:11 PM
Saint Croix said...: MLK was very dark-skinned (darker than her), so I doubt very much that he discriminated on the basis of her skin.

Her attorney was Fred Gray. (Gray also represented Rosa Parks).

She was one of the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, the class-action lawsuit that ended bus discrimination. Four other plaintiffs (all women) were part of that litigation. >a href="https://www.loc.gov/exhibitions/rosa-parks-in-her-own-words/about-this-exhibition/the-bus-boycott/browder-v-gayle-class-action-lawsuit-bus-situation/">Rosa Parks was excluded, ironically.

MLK was charged with tax evasion in 1960. (I did not know that!) Gray got him acquitted by an all-white jury in Alabama. Wow.

Gray also represented the plaintiffs in the Tuskegee Syphilis study.; 1/14/26, 5:36 PM
Saint Croix said...: Trying again. Rosa Parks was excluded, ironically.; 1/14/26, 5:37 PM
Saint Croix said...: Who are Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald, Jeanetta Reese, and Mary Louise Smith? Fame is a funny thing.

Why are all the plaintiffs women? Men did not violate the rules on bus segregation? Or women are more sympathetic plaintiffs?; 1/14/26, 5:40 PM
Narr said...: "Or women are more sympathetic plaintiffs?"

In the Jim Crow Southland of the 1950's, yes.; 1/14/26, 6:32 PM
n.n said...: NAACP at the intersection of racism and sexism on one hand.

Planned Parenthood and womb deaths on the other.

Women lose with either special and peculiar liberal corporation.; 1/14/26, 7:01 PM
john mosby said...: St Croix: "MLK was charged with tax evasion in 1960. (I did not know that!) Gray got him acquitted by an all-white jury in Alabama. Wow."

Only thing a redneck hates more than a black person is a revenooer! CC, JSM; 1/14/26, 8:05 PM
Enigma said...: @john mosby: Only thing a redneck hates more than a black person is a revenooer!

The post-Civil War "solid south" voted in lockstep for anti-fed Democrats until Reagan came along. Jimmy Carter was a bridge too far even for rebel flag moonshiners with statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson on their front lawns. Then, the 1980s and 1990s coastal "politically correct" Democrats aggressively purged conservatives in favor of pro-abortion females and DEI supporters.

The old generation of country club Republicans (e.g., Nixon, Nelson Rockefeller, GHW Bush) were functional clones of urban Democrats, but they wanted to spend a bit less money than the Democrats. Also see GHW Bush and Ruby Ridge, plus his dispute with the NRA over the "jackbooted thugs" fundraising mailer. In the 1990s, Trump fit this mold too.; 1/15/26, 4:45 AM
Narr said...: "The post-Civil War 'solid south' voted in lockstep for anti-fed Democrats until Reagan came along."

That's really not so in the case of presidential elections.

In 1952 Ike took FL, TN, and VA; 1956 he took those three and picked up LA and TX; 1960 Nixon took FL, TN, and VA; 1964 Goldwater took LA, MS, AL, GA, and SC while Nixon got the rest; in 1968 the only southern state that voted for Johnson was TX.; 1/15/26, 9:57 AM
Tina Trent said...: Ms. Olsen was the real hero. Rosa Parks was a thoroughly trained commie shill.

I never spent five minutes on a MARTA bus or train without being sexually harrased or abused. Of course I was on at six or off after 11. So, not commuter times. Where do I get my medal?; 1/15/26, 4:43 PM
Tina Trent said...: Enigma: other factors were far more important. And as usual, Narr uses these things called facts.; 1/15/26, 5:04 PM
Narr said...: I have no idea why I said "Nixon got the rest" in '64. It was LBJ of course; Goldwater also got his home state that year.; 1/15/26, 6:06 PM