[HN Gopher] Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin (2009)
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Before Rosa Parks, There Was Claudette Colvin (2009)
Author : Y_Y
Score : 29 points
Date : 2021-09-04 20:22 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
| docdeek wrote:
| I heard about Colvin in an episode of The Newsroom during a
| typically engaging Sorkin-penned monologue: "March 2nd, 1955. A
| young black woman is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on
| a bus to a white man in Alabama. Civil Rights leaders in the ACLU
| rush to her side. And she will be a symbol of the struggle
| against segregation. Her name is Claudette Colvin and she is 15
| years old. She's also unmarried and pregnant. Civil rights
| leaders in the ACLU decide that Colvin is not the best foot
| forward and stand-down. 8 months later Rosa Parks happens, but
| during that 8 months a brilliant and charismatic young minister
| gets the attention of the community and is chosen to lead the bus
| boycotts. If Claudette Colvin doesn't get pregnant, if they'd
| gone in the spring instead of 8 months later, Martin Luther King
| is a preacher you've never heard of in Montgomery."
| mc32 wrote:
| It's all connected. She probably needed to sit down what with
| being pregnant and all. If she hadn't been pregnant she might
| not have been on the bus or if she had might not have
| protested. But if you're pregnant and tired, most would protest
| the injustice there.
| paulryanrogers wrote:
| In that era they may have been afraid of reinforcing the
| stereotype that black people were more likely to have
| children yoo young and outside of marriage.
| lstamour wrote:
| (2009), but still relevant today.
| dang wrote:
| Year added above. Thanks!
| manachar wrote:
| Some use this to be cynical of the Civil Rights movement.
|
| Which is a weird critique, when the reason they had to be careful
| about their image was because of the general white supremacist
| and racist ideology of the time.
|
| For example, American prisons are generally awful places where we
| mostly fail to provide prisoners the basic human rights we are
| required to provide. We even joke about prison rape as being
| appropriate punishment, despite it being clearly a cruel and
| unusual punishment. But, since prisoners are often not exactly
| sympathetic to the majority of the population, prison reform is
| an uphill battle.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| Is prison rape unusual? I thought it was quite common.
| angelzen wrote:
| It's a reference to the eighth amendment: "Excessive bail
| shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel
| and unusual punishments inflicted."
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| Something that is cruel and usual is not cruel and unusual.
| geofft wrote:
| It's very rare for rape to be a _legally mandated_
| punishment, which I think makes it an "unusual
| punishment," even if it's not a particularly unusual
| occurrence (either among the punished, or among the world
| at large).
|
| A couple thousand US prisoners have died of covid and
| hundreds of thousands have been infected with it, but
| that doesn't mean that intentionally inflicting people
| with covid is now a usual punishment.
| rufus_foreman wrote:
| The parent comment says "We even joke about prison rape
| as being appropriate punishment", I don't read that as
| referring specifically to legally mandated punishment, do
| you?
| [deleted]
| Avshalom wrote:
| I also recommend Ida B. Wells.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells#Early_career_and_...
|
| http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=356
| bgroins wrote:
| Funny enough, I learned about Claudette Colvin from this Drunk
| History episode. https://youtu.be/Tov2tLSFq5k
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(page generated 2021-09-04 23:02 UTC)