Image description: photo of a newspaper clipping sourced from Claudette Colvin and published in a Guardian profile in 2021. There are two headlines reading “Girl, 15, Guilty in Bus Seat Case” and “Negro Girl Found Guilty of Segregation Violation,” as well as a photo of a young Black girl with tortoiseshell glasses, short curly hair wearing a sweater looking into the camera and lightly smiling.
PPT mourns the passing of the organizer, transit and civil rights icon Claudette Colvin, who took an arrest for refusing to give up her seat on the bus in civil disobedience, 9 months before Rosa Parks did.
Colvin’s story took too long to surface because she was at the time an unwed, pregnant Black girl; then, as now, some argued that the only people whose voices and actions should be recognized are those whose stories are seen as perfectly respectable and unassailable.
But that is wrong: we are all deserving.
We are all deserving of life free from injustice and violence, and Claudette Colvin deserved to be celebrated and supported for her courage – not despite the fact of her pregnancy and her youth, but especially because she was just a child of 15 when she was arrested for the civil disobedience, and one who was particularly vulnerable because she didn’t have a husband and because she was bearing a child. At great risk to herself, she stood up for justice.
Image Description: Photo of Ms. Lisa Gonzalez wearing a red PPT shirt, long black braids and glasses looking at the camera and holding a picture book of Claudette Colvin, with coloring sheets of buses in the background. Her photo is surrounded by peonies and other flowers.
This image above is that of our own transit and civil rights icon, Ms. Lisa Gonzalez, pictured here holding up a book on Claudette Colvin. For several years, she led a PPT table on MLK Day in which she would share Claudette’s story with children at the Kelly Strayhorn theater.
Today we also remember the late Ms. Lisa Gonzalez as well as Mr. Samuel Jordan, leader of the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition, who became a friend to Claudette Colvin and told her story to our generation of organizers in the fight for transit justice. He was a mentor and peer to PPT, and active in the national rider coalition, the TRUST (Transit Riders of the U.S. Together). Mr. Jordan himself passed away last August.
We cherish our movement storytellers as well as those whose courage was showcased in the histories they tell.
Ms. Claudette Colvin, Ms. Lisa Gonzalez, Mr. Samuel Jordan, presente-