When you have a gut feeling that things aren’t right and unfair, you should speak out. If you have to stand up alone, stand up alone. ~ Claudette Colvin
In February, 1956 a court case (Browder v. Gayle) was filed with Claudette Colvin, Aurelia Browder, Susie McDonald and Mary Louise Smith as plaintiffs. Claudette Colvin had been arrested nine months before Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. That case went to the District Court and then to the Supreme Court, which upheld the lower court’s order to Montgomery and the state of Alabama to end segregation on busses.
Although she was neither the first person of color to refuse to give up her seat for a white person, nor was it the first time Rosa Parks had refused to, on December 1, 1955, rather than simply kick her off his bus, the white bus driver (James F. Blake) opted to call police and have her arrested.
Four days and a great deal of organizing later, members of the NAACP (including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a new minister in town) and the African American community began a boycott of the Montgomery Bus System that lasted 381 days. During the boycott, buses often ran with no passengers or stood empty.
It takes more than one person to bring about Peace – it takes all of us. ~ Rosa Parks
Neither of these women knew when they took a stand for their rights and those of their fellow human beings, that they would become symbols of the Civil Rights Movement. What they did know was that their civil rights were being impinged upon, and they each used their voice as a stand for justice. They did not injure anyone. They did not name call. They did not place blame or shame the people who would oppress them. They each stood their ground, found the support of their community behind them, and continued to work in some capacity for social justice for the remainder of their lives.
We are in a time where taking a stand for Peace in whatever way we are moved to is perhaps the greatest gift we can give ourselves and each other. Peace will look like assisting people in Texas, India, Bangladesh and Nepal who are so profoundly affected by flooding. It will look like rescuing animals and cleaning them when oil spills into the sea. Perhaps it will be addressing the bully at a child’s school, so that it can again become a place to learn. For some, it will be caring for aging parents in seemingly untenable circumstances, offering them a modicum of dignity in their last days. For some, it will be rallying in the streets and finding supporters within the community who also want Peace and feel ready to stand with them.
Each of us has the ability to be Peace within our own lives, and to connect with others for the sake of Peace, just as Ms. Colvin and Ms. Parks did. Stand alone, and support will be found in the most amazing ways. For each of us, all of us, has something to contribute.