Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice [Paperback]

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 inBrowder 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 in-depth account of an important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the course of American history.

Claudette Colvinis the National Book Award Winner for Young People's Literature, a Newbery Honor Book, A YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Finalist, and a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Book Discussion Part 1 (HC: pp. 175 / TP: pp. 171)

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. 1618 / TP: pp. 1718)
Jeremiah Reeves's arrest (HC: pp. 2325 / TP: pp. 2326)
Brown v. Board of Education
Miss Nesbit and Miss Lawrence team-teaching Black History Month (HC: pp. 2527/ TP: pp. 2629)

2) How and why is Claudette's description of the events leading up to her al3ï