Throughout school, we are taught about the importance of Rosa Parks and her refusal to give up her seat on a bus. She is marketed as a visionary, and as the first person to stand up for what is right. I am a history major, and I have never been told how common it was for people to fight the Jim Crow laws. This makes me pretty angry, to be perfectly honest. I think that history books should be re-written, and they should include information about the other people who helped make progress in the Civil Rights movement. Reading this book makes me want to further investigate the Civil Rights Movement so that when I am a teacher, I can include the important information that is left out by so many.
Yes I completely agree with you. When I first read about Claudette I was really surprised, however I started getting angrier when I realized how much credit Claudette had not been awarded. She really did a lot of things to propel the civil rights movement and considering her age she should be regarded with an even higher honer. I really wish that I could find out about more people like Claudette but I realize that it is really hard. these people have not only been overshadowed, but rather buried. For example if you ever search civil rights and bus rights, I'm sure you will be able to find Claudette's name but it will be after digging through the thousands of articles about civil rights which do not mention her what so ever (they probably mention Rosa Parks instead). It is like finding a needle in a haystack. It made me realize that the history books are not evil, they probably did not just leave out Claudette because they were biased, they probably did it because they could not find her. This occurrence must happen to thousands of well deserving people but rather then blame history books, if we ever find out about a person like Claudette we should try to inform others so the overshadowed hero's can at least begin to get the credit they deserve.
ReplyDelete---Amer
I would agree with both of you. In my opinion, Claudette made more of a stand and sacrificed way more then Rosa Parks did. I think she should have been awarded more credit then Rosa Parks.
ReplyDeleteClaudette said herself at the end of book something along the lines of Rosa Parks was probably the best person to do what she did at the time because of the amount if people she knew. Claudette went on to say that she still feels she was the true originator of the idea and that Rosa Parks would not have done what she did, had Claudette not done it first. She seemed almost content with Rosa Parks' celebrity status. Do you think she feels this way because perhaps people have put this in her head, or do you think she really is content with how things ended up panning out?
ReplyDelete