Biography Twice Toward Justice Philip Hoe Summary

Question #1

What was Claudette Colvin’s childhood like?

Answer:

In the Biography Twice Toward Justice, the author Phillip Hoose details how Claudette Colvin’s childhood was not without strife. At the humble age of four, she remembers how her mother treated her after a white boy wanted to see her hands, and “gave me a backhand slap across my face…‘Don’t you know you’re not supposed to touch them,’” (Hoose 3). Throughout her childhood, she learned the hardships that would come to shape her resolve. Sadly, this is only one example to show, expressing the deep south racism through a simple quote to define what her childhood was primarily surrounded by. Not only seeing the injustice in her community from a young age, she also experienced loss:

During a crowded afternoon bus ride, "I decided I wasn't gonna take it anymore… After the other students got up, there were three empty seats in my row, but that white woman still wouldn't sit down-not even across the aisle from me…blacks had to be behind whites… 'Why are you still sittin' there?'"(Hoose 32). Initiating the Civil Rights Movement, Claudette Colvin refused to stand for a white lady when there was an empty row next to her. Claudette's bravery sparked a fire within the black community, & they attempted to keep her name in the papers. Through the short bout of fame, “The news that a schoolgirl had been arrested for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white passenger flashed through Montgomery’s black community and traveled far beyond,”(Hoose 39). Claudette became known as the young 15-year-old who stood up for her rights and against segregation. Although Colvin inspired the bus boycotts, she wasn’t as well known due to being younger, considered immature and impulsive, and not being as pretty or having fair skin or straighter hair, the typical standards of white people (considered

Gayle case and how Claudette Colvin contributed greatly. The Browder v. Gayle case was the lawsuit that ultimately ended Montgomery bus segregation, and Claudette Colvin was appointed as one of the key plaintiffs. Surprisingly, “the only one of the five who had previously appeared in court on a bus case was the youngest,” (Hoose 83). That, of course, was Claudette Colvin. She was still a minor, so once the lawyer leading the case, Fred Gray–Claudette Colvin’s previous lawyer–spoke to her family, they all agreed. Colvin would testify. After the ordeal, many, including Charles Langford, were “deeply impressed by her presentation. ‘If there was a star witness in the boycott case…it had to be Claudette Colvin’” (Hoose 99-100). Answering questions plainly and truthfully without misstepping was not an easy feat, especially with Walter Knabe attempting to make one admit evidence to be twisted and prove his side of the case. Claudette Colvin answered with tact and resolve, unwilling to step down to the injustice though prying eyes judged within the courtroom. Colvin used her previous experience of being seized, lugged from a bus, and detained in an adult jail to sway the audience and win the votes of ⅔ of the