Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice

by Phillip Hoose

Overview

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER AND NEWBERY HONOR BOOK ● Before Rosa Parks, there was 15-year-old Claudette Colvin. Read the first in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure in this multi-award winning, mega-selling biography from the incomparable Phillip Hoose.

“When it comes to justice, there is no easy way to get it. You can't sugarcoat it. You have to take a stand and say, ‘This is not right.’” —Claudette Colvin

On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim Crow South.

Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many others, Phillip Hoose presents the first major biography of a remarkable civil rights hero, skillfully weaving her riveting story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

Awards and Praise for Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
National Book Award Winner
A Newbery Honor Book
A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Amazon.com 100 Biographies and Memoirs to Read in a Lifetime

“Hoose's book, based in part on interviews with Colvin and people who knew her—finally gives her the credit she deserves.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Claudette's eloquent bravery is unforgettable.” —The Wall Street Journal

★ “This inspiring title shows the incredible difference that a single young person can make.” —Booklist, starred review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312661052
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	12/21/2010
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	40,314
Product dimensions:	6.05(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.55(d)
Lexile:	1000L (what's this?)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Phillip Hoose is an award-winning author of books, essays, stories, songs and articles. Although he first wrote for adults, he turned his attention to children and young adults in part to keep up with his own daughters. Claudette Colvin won a National Book Award and was dubbed a Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2009. He is also the author of Hey, Little Ant, co-authored by his daughter, Hannah, It's Our World, Too!, The Race to Save the Lord God Bird, and We Were There, Too!, a National Book Award finalist. He has received a Jane Addams Children's Book Award, a Christopher Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, among numerous honors. He was born in South Bend, Indiana, and grew up in the towns of South Bend, Angola, and Speedway, Indiana. He was educated at Indiana University and the Yale School of Forestry. He lives in Portland, Maine.

Reading Group Guide

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Book Discussion Part 1 (HC: pp. 1–75 / TP: pp. 1–71)

1) How did each of the experiences listed below contribute to Claudette's refusal to give up her seat on the bus?

". . . how I learned I should never touch another white person again." (HC and TP: p. 3)
The stories about shopping in downtown Montgomery (HC: pp. 16–18 / TP: pp. 17–18)
Jeremiah Reeves's arrest (HC: pp. 23–25 / TP: pp. 23–26)
Brown v. Board of Education
Miss Nesbit and Miss Lawrence team-teaching Black History Month (HC: pp. 25–27/ TP: pp. 26–29)

2) How and why is Claudette's description of the events leading up to her arrest different from the incident as described in the Montgomery Police Department report?

3) How and why was Claudette's arrest different from the earlier arrests of Geneva Johnson (1946), Viola White and Katie Wingfield (1949), and Edwina and Marshall Johnson (1949)?

4) Why do you think Claudette refused to plead guilty?

5) Reverend H. H. Johnson told Claudette, ". . . I think you just brought the revolution to Montgomery." (HC: p. 35 / TP: p. 37) Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

6) Why do you think Claudette's classmates and neighbors did not treat her as a hero after she was arrested?

7) How was Rosa Parks's arrest both similar to and different from Claudette Colvin's?

8) Claudette Colvin said, "When I heard on the news that it was Rosa Parks, I had several feelings: I was glad an adult had finally stood up to the system, but I felt left out. I was thinking, Hey, I did that months ago and everybody dropped me." (HC: p.61 / TP: p. 67) She goes on to share some ideas about why she thinks the black leaders chose to use Rosa Parks's case as inspiration for the bus boycott rather than her own. What do you think?

Book Discussion Part 2 (HC: pp. 76–10 / TP: pp. 72–101)

1) Claudette Colvin said, "There was a time when I thought I would be the centerpiece of the bus case. I was eager to keep going in court. I had wanted them to keep appealing my case. I had enough self confidence to keep going." (HC: p.63 / TP: p. 67). Only a few months later, the NAACP asked Claudette to participate in another court case. Why do you think they wanted Claudette for the second court case?

2) How were Claudette's two court cases different?

3) Why was courage the number one requirement for plaintiffs?

4) While Claudette practiced for her second day in court, her mother gave her this advice: "If you can even talk to a white person without lowering your eyes you're really doing something." Why did she give Claudette this particular advice? Do you think it was helpful? Why or why not?

5) One of the lawyers for the plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle said, "If there was a star witness in the boycott case . . . it had to be Claudette Colvin." (HC: p. 88 / TP: pp. 99–100) Reread the description of the testimony, especially Claudette's testimony (pp. 82–88 / TP: pp. 83–85). Why do you think the lawyer called Claudette Colvin the star witness? Do you agree? Why or why not?

6) Why do we call the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Browder v. Gayle successful when the following things occurred?

"Browder v. Gayle may have ended legal segregation on the buses, but it did not end racial prejudice." (HC: p. 97 / TP: p. 109)
"Violence and threats of revenge were everywhere in the first days of integrated buses." (HC: p. 98 / TP: p. 110)
"It was clear that anyone connected to the boycott, anyone whose name or picture had been the paper—was now in grave danger." (HC: p. 98 / TP: p. 110)

7) After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Browder v. Gayle and the Montgomery Bus Boycott ended, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. thanked Claudette Colvin for serving as a plaintiff in the court case. He then said to her, "You're a brave young lady." Claudette said, "Meeting Dr. King didn't pay my bills or stop people from gossiping about me and Raymond. It sure didn't make me any safer. But I have to say those few words of praise from him on that evening felt very good." (HC: p. 99 / TP: p. 111) Considering how much Claudette had been through and how she felt abandoned by the black leadership in Montgomery and by her community, why would she say that those few kind words, spoken privately to her, after it was all over, "felt very good" and were worth remembering decades later?

Editorial Reviews

National Book Award Winner
A Newbery Honor Book
A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist
A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
A Jane Addams Children's Book Award Honor Book
Amazon.com 100 Biographies and Memoirs to Read in a Lifetime

A Booklist Top 10 Biographies for Youth Selection
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
An Amazon.com Top 10 Editor's Picks for Teens Selection
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare Book of the Year
An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALSC Notable Children’s Book

Vermont Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award Master List
New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Award Master List
Tennessee Intermediate Volunteer State Book Award Master List
Indiana Young Hoosier Award Master List
Oregon Battle of the Books Master List
New Jersey Garden State Teen Book Master List
A YALSA Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners
A New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing
A Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choice

“Hoose's book, based in part on interviews with Colvin and people who knew her—finally gives her the credit she deserves.” —The New York Times Book Review

“History might have forgotten Claudette Colvin, or relegated her to footnote status, had writer Phillip Hoose not stumbled upon her name in the course of other research and tracked her down. . . .The photos of the era are riveting and Claudette's eloquent bravery is unforgettable.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Before Rosa Parks, there was Claudette Colvin, a teenager who knew her constitutional rights and was willing to be arrested to prove it” —The Washington Post

“Compelling.” —New York Daily News

“Hoose vividly recreates Colvin's bravery.” —The New York Post

“Hoose makes the moments in Montgomery come alive, whether it's about Claudette's neighborhood, her attorneys, her pastor or all the different individuals in the civil rights movement who paths she crossed . . . . An engrossing read.” —Chicago Tribune

“Today, thanks to Hoose, a new generation of girls—and boys—can add Claudette Colvin to their list of heroines.” —The Christian Science Monitor

“Hoose writes in a fluid, easy style and weaves in many voices of the time. He captures the tension and explosive emotions in the pivotal scenes.” —Sacramento Bee

“Phil Hoose, who has done pioneering work in bringing to our attention the crucial role of young people in social movements, here tells the extraordinary, yet little-known story of Claudette Colvin, who, even before the famous incident involving Rosa Parks, sparked the historic bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Claudette Colvin was a remarkable teenager. With great courage she acted upon her principles—and played a significant role in the drama of the civil rights movement. This is a story that if taught in every classroom in the nation, might well inspire a new generation of young activists to join the on-going struggle for social justice.” —Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States

“Phil Hoose's profile of the remarkable Claudette Colvin is MUST reading for anyone still imbued with hope. She is a lighthouse in a stormy sea.” —Studs Terkel, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Good War

★ “Hoose's evenhanded account investigates Colvin's motives and influences, and carefully establishes the historical context so that readers can appreciate both Colvin's maturity and bravery and the boycott leadership's pragmatism.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

★ “Hoose encourages teens to empathize with an age peer, once dismissed as too ‘emotional' to withstand public scrutiny, who later testified in the federal lawsuit that would finally end discrimination on public transportation.” —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review

★ “This inspiring title shows the incredible difference that a single young person can make.” —Booklist, Starred Review

★ “Outstanding.” —School Library Journal, Starred Review

★ “Hoose reasserts her [Claudette Colvin] place in history with this vivid and dramatic account, complemented with photographs, sidebars, and liberal excerpts from interviews conducted with Colvin.” —The Horn Book, Starred Review

“Inspiring.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Through interviews with Colvin and others, Hoose delves into the details behind this largely unknown incident, ensuring that readers will have Colvin's courageous story forever seared into their memories.” —The Horn Book

“This stirring account affirms Colvin's rightful place in history and gives young people a reason to stand up for what's right, even if the laws are not.” —Shelf Awareness

“This fresh look at a well-documented period in American history will appeal to readers from young teens to adults.” —VOYA

“In Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice young readers finally get to hear Claudette Colvin's story in her own words, giving them a detailed look at segregated life in 1950s Montgomery, Alabama, and showing them how one teenager helped change the world.” —Marian Wright Edelman, President, Children's Defense Fund

From the Publisher

In March 1955, nine months before Rosa Parks triggered the bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., by refusing to surrender her seat to a white passenger, a 15-year-old Montgomery girl, Claudette Colvin, let herself be arrested and dragged off the bus for the same reason; in 1956, Colvin was one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, a landmark case in which Montgomery's segregated bus system was declared unconstitutional. Investigating Colvin's actions, asking why Rosa Parks's role has overshadowed Colvin's, Hoose (We Were There, Too! Young People in U.S. History) introduces readers to a resolute and courageous teenager and explores the politics of the NAACP and bus-boycott leadership. Because Colvin had been tearful in the period following her 1955 conviction, when her classmates shunned her, she was deemed too "emotional" to place at the center of the bus boycott; by the time Parks assumed that position, Colvin was disgraced: pregnant but not married. Hoose's evenhanded account investigates Colvin's motives and influences, and carefully establishes the historical context so that readers can appreciate both Colvin's maturity and bravery and the boycott leadership's pragmatism. Illus. with b&w photos. Ages 10-up. (Feb.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Gr 6 Up

In Montgomery, AL, in March 1955, 15-year-old Colvin refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger. She was arrested, and although she received some help from local civil rights leaders, they decided that the sometimes-volatile teen was not suitable to be the public face of a mass protest. Later that year, Rosa Parks sparked the famous bus boycott. Colvin was left with a police record and soon faced the additional problems of an unwed pregnancy and expulsion from school. In spite of those troubles, she consented to be named as a plaintiff in the court case that eventually integrated Montgomery's buses. Thus Colvin played a central role in the city's civil rights drama, but her story has been largely lost to history. Hoose, who had been curious about the often-unidentified teen who first defied bus segregation, persuaded her to tell her story. His book puts Colvin back into the historical record, combining her reminiscences with narrative about her life and the tumultuous events of the boycott. He includes background about segregated Montgomery and places Colvin's story into the context of the larger Civil Rights Movement. The text is supplemented with black-and-white photos, reproductions of period newspapers and documents, and sidebars. While virtually all students know Rosa Parks's story, this well-written and engaging book will introduce them to a teen who also fought for racial justice and give them a new perspective on the era, making it an outstanding choice for most collections.-Mary Mueller, Rolla Junior High School, MO

School Library Journal

Claudette Colvin's story will be new to most readers. A teenager in the 1950s, Colvin was the first African-American to refuse to give up her seat on the bus in Montgomery, Ala. Although she later participated with four other women in the court case that effectively ended segregated bus service, it is Rosa Parks's action that became the celebrated event of the bus boycott. Hoose's frank examination of Colvin's life includes sizable passages in her own words, allowing readers to learn about the events of the time from a unique and personal perspective. The sequence of events unfolds clearly, with its large cast of characters distinctly delineated. Period photographs and reprints of newspaper articles effectively evoke the tenor of the times. Both Colvin and the author speculate that it was Colvin's unplanned (and unwed) pregnancy that prevented her from being embraced as the face of the Civil Rights movement. Her commitment to combating injustice, however, was unaffected, and she remains an inspiring figure whom contemporary readers will be pleased to discover. (notes, bibliography, index) (Biography. 12 & up)

Kirkus Reviews

Phil Hoose's profile of the remarkable Claudette Colvin is MUST reading for anyone still imbued with hope. She is a lighthouse in a stormy sea.

Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Good Wa Studs Terkel

This 2009 National Book Award winner introduces listeners to forgotten Civil Rights heroine Claudette Colvin, who (nine months before Rosa Parks) refused to give up her own Birmingham bus seat. Channie Waites superbly narrates a text that offers both cogent explanations of history, including especially informative sidebars, and first-person accounts of those who witnessed the battle for civil rights firsthand, dramatized by Waites in a vivid array of voices. Listening to Jim Crow policies along with quotes from people who were subjected to such indignities brings history alive. Waites's crowning accomplishment is her narration of long passages from Hoose's interviews with Colvin herself. Those listening as she gives voice to Colvin's memories, whether as inquisitive child or teen awakened by education and seething with injustice, will be incredibly moved. J.C.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, SYNC 2014 © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2009 - AudioFile