Technically, the same issues that the mother's organization faced were exactly in line with what other women of color experienced from other blacks - especially as it concerns the
Black Bourgeoisie (more shared
here,
here and
here).
I believe I shared this with you before - but as it concerns how social movements are given one image that history latches onto while those who experienced the same never got their due to long
after. For in one of my Graduate School classes, another older black woman (in her late 60s) noted how the Civil Rights movement wasn't above political relations/setting things up to look one way when it was different and she noted the ways that some issues present today were present then when it came to not valuing young adults of a specific image/look - specifically in regards to those who don't look as "relatable" to the public.
The girl I'm talking on is
Claudette Colvin. The 15yr girl who came before Rosa Parks was a young black female who was a single mom - and one who was more vocal in opposition - and they didn't want her representing the movement - and thus, they didn't make a public fuss when she got put off the bus for sitting down. The fact that she was darker also made a world of difference since there was an understanding that a public image of dark skin always seemed to be more controversial.
Apparently, while Rosa Parks was mellow, lighter skinned and middle aged, with the right hair and the right look, the
teenager Colvin was mouthy, emotional and feisty. Claudette also got pregnant, and the father was a married man. Civil rights leaders perceived that the non-threatening Parks was much more likely to garner white sympathy than the impetuous rebel Colvin. My mother told me to be quiet about what I did, Colvin told the
New York Times. She told me: Let Rosa be the one. White people arent going to bother Rosa her skin is lighter than yours and they like her. Much of this is interesting since it was Colvin, who as the federal governments star witness in the landmark
Browder v. Gayle, helped to end bus segregation in Alabama.
The fact that those issues happen WITHIN outsider communities always stands to bring home the point that there are no UNIVERSALS as to how all act
