This design references the story of Rosa Parks who is known for her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. However, before the infamous staged sit-in, Claudette Colvin had been arrested for not giving up her seat to a white woman on a crowded, segregated bus. In fact, many other injustices had taken place surrounding segregation on Montgomery public transportation.
It has been said that Ms. Colvin did not receive the same attention as Ms. Parks because: she did not have "good hair", she was not fair-skinned, she was a teenager, she was pregnant...
It was believed that due to respectability politics, the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement tried to keep up appearances and make the "most appealing" protesters the most seen.
As it turns out, Rosa Parks mentored Claudette Colvin so this is not a matter of pitting these two prominent figures agains each other; we are acknowledging the countless others who contributed to the Civil Rights Movement and the amount of community work it took to organize the movement.
If you are interested in finding out more on this story and exploring the way we view movements, please do some research! Here is an article to get you started.
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